This week, I'm back in sunny Los Angeles -- remember last week, when I was near the action on the Israel/Lebanon border? Crazy stuff -- and I'll be looking at what the recent congressional votes mean for our politics, going forward.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was elected after a revolt, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), against Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), ostensibly because McCarthy had become an emissary of the DC establishment, the "uniparty."
As I noted at the time, McCarthy had passed a continuing resolution to fund the government without including funding for Ukraine. This was something the rebels overlooked. (I said Johnson would end up funding Ukraine; I was right.)
Anyway -- on Friday, Johnson pushed through a vote to reauthorize the much-abused FISA; and then on Saturday, he pushed through a bill to provide aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, while Democrats waved Ukrainian flags on the floor.
He had to do all of that with Democrat votes, as he did not have the majority of his caucus behind him for the FISA or Ukraine votes. So where does this put the GOP in the middle of an election year? We'll try to figure that out.
We'll also discuss the latest in the Trump trial in Manhattan, with the jury now fully selected. What are the prospects for a conviction, or a hung jury? An acquittal seems out of the question, given the venue. But we'll look into it.
We'll also discuss the Biden administration's decision to sanction an IDF unit that is composed of religious soldiers. It's a bizarre decision that sends all the wrong signals during wartime and could even put American soldiers at risk.
I'll also interview my cousin, Adrian Perkel, who has written a new book about the psychological roots of aggression. Aggressors often perceive themselves as victims; so in a conflict, how do we decide which side is really the victim?
Finally, we'll discuss the Passover holiday, the Jewish festival of freedom, which starts Monday night. This year, Passover is particularly poignant, because there are actual Jewish slaves in Gaza. Their freedom is an urgent priority.
Special guests:
- Matthew Boyle - Breitbart News DC editor, on Congress and the fallout
- Ken Klukowski - Breitbart News legal editor, on the Trump trial in Manhattan
- Adrian Perkel - clinical psychologist and scholar, on the nature of aggression
- Rich Goldberg - Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, on sanctions
Tune in: SiriusXM Patriot 125, 7-10 p.m. ET, 4-7 p.m. PT
Call in: 866-957-2874
This week'd portion begins the book of Numbers. Interestingly, the Hebrew name for the book is "In the Desert," not "Numbers." The portion, which happens to be my bar mitzvah portion, focuses almost as much on the names of the princes of each tribe as the number of soldiers it fielded. It also focuses on the configuration of the tribal camps around the central Tabernacle and the Levites.
So why "Numbers" instead of "Names" or "Places"? The numbers are, to be sure, a unique feature of the opening of this Biblical book -- but they are not the focus of the rest of the narrative. The Hebrew focuses on the place where the events in the book take place, because essentially this is the narrative of the Israelites' wanderings from Egypt to Israel, across 40 years. We move from the giving of the Torah and the construction of the Tabernacle in Exodus and Leviticus, to the final valediction of Moses in Deuteronomy -- Bamidbar is the story of wandering that happened in between.
The question of ...
This week's portion begins with the laws of the Sabbath and the Sabbatical year, and the Jubilee year that restores all land to its original (tribal) owners. It also explores laws of property and labor that will apply in the Land of Israel, and the laws of vows and inheritance.
The Israelites are presented -- not for the last time -- with the essential moral choice that they must face, and the rewards for choosing well, along with the consequences for choosing poorly.
We learn that doing good things will earn God's protection from enemies. That does not mean that victims of terror, God forbid, were sinful. But it does mean that we can respond to evil by committing ourselves to a higher path.
This week's portion describes the major sacrifices that are to be offered by the Jewish people, including those that are offered only by the priestly Kohen class, and physical requirements of the people (men) who serve in that role.
Inter alia, there are interesting commandments -- such as an injection to treat animals with respect and care, first, by letting a mother animal nurse her offspring for a week before being offered in any sacrifice; and second, by refraining from slaughtering an animal and its offspring on the same day.
The commandments regarding animals remind us of the purpose of those regarding human beings: to uphold a divine connection, through ritual.
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/111878/jewish/Rabbi-Isaac-Luria-The-Ari-Hakodosh.htm
