This week's portion, in addition to the reading for Passover, discusses the aftermath of the death of Aaron's sons. God, through Moses, lays out the process for atonement on Yom Kippur, followed by a list of sexual prohibitions.
It is telling that Aaron's profound personal grief at losing two of his four sons in the midst of the Tabernacle service is turned into a motivation for repentance among the nation as a whole, as well as for basic rules of sexual morality.
In that sense, Aaron's profound loss represents a national gain -- and the dread that surrounds the fate of his sons motivates what is an appropriate sense of fear and awe around the law, atonement, and the presence of sin in our lives.
It’s Purim time… time to get the sweet stuff baking.
This is for an apricot hamantaschen filling…
This week, we'll honor the mothers among us -- and talk about the challenges of parenthood in general. We'll also talk about the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, and the way that the Biden Administration is undermining Israel.
We'll touch on the Trump trial in Manhattan, and the legal fight going ahead. What are the prospects of any kind of conviction, and what would it mean for Trump's electoral challenges? There will be a bit of Little League baseball as well!
Special guests:
Lee Smith - author, on Biden's attempt to sabotage Israel's war against Hamas
Alan Dershowitz - lawyer and scholar, on the Trump trial and Israel policy
Tim Carney - author, "Family Unfriendly," on parenting in American culture
Emma-Jo Morris - Breitbart News political editor, on expectant mothers
Sue Burstein-Kahn - Michigan political activist, on local antisemitism
Tune in: SiriusXM Patriot 125, 7-10 p.m. ET, 4-7 p.m. PT
Call in: 866-957-2874
This week's portion is one in which God lays out a list of laws, overlapping with but expanding upon the Ten Commandments, necessary for the Israelites to be a "holy" nation. These include moral conventions and sexual prohibitions.
In Leviticus 18:32, we are told: "You shall rise before a venerable person and you shall respect the elderly, and you shall fear your God. I am the Lord." Standing up to respect someone honorable, or giving up a seat to the elderly, seems to be ordinary manners and common sense. But not everyone does that today.
Notably, the passage connects respecting the venerable, and the elderly, to respecting God. By respecting each other, we show our faith in God, and for the spark of godliness that exists in every human being created in God's image.
