This week's portion begins with the story of Pinchas, who stopped a plague and appeased God's anger by killing an Israelite prince and a Midianite woman who had been fornicating openly in public, causing despair to the people.
There is a lesson here about sexual morality -- which is bad in private, but far worse, and socially destructive, if carried out in public, in defiance of norms and leaders who are trying to point people in the right direction.
Pinchas and his descendants are rewarded by being able to join the priesthood. The portion goes on to describe the descendants within the tribes, and the special sacrifices offered by the Jewish people on each holiday in the calendar.
There is a special story about the daughters of Zelaphchad, who study the law and use reasoned argument to defend their right to inherit land in Israel. Moses, to his credit, listens to them and incorporates their circumstances into the law.
https://www.chabad.org/parshah/torahreading_cdo/aid/2495776/jewish/Pinchas-Torah-Reading.htm
This week's show will be slightly different from the norm: we'll focus on clips and topics, rather than guests -- and that, hopefully, will mean more input from the callers (unless you are all watching football on opening weekend).
Topics:
- The state of the economy
- The fight against crime
- The midterm election fight
- The struggle for peace between Russia and Ukraine
- The airstrike on the Venezuelan drug cartel
- The attempt to sink Kennedy
- The war in Gaza
- The case against Harvard
- The Trump presidency
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This week's Torah portion includes several laws about conduct in civic and personal life, the common theme of which is boundaries -- setting bounds to what one may do at home, at work, and even in the battlefield.
One noteworthy passage concerns Amalek, the evil nation that attacked the Children of Israel as they made their Exodus from slavery to freedom. Deuteronomy 25:17-19 commands Jews to obliterate Amalek's memory.
The South African government accused Israel of genocide on the basis of a story about Amalek in the Book of Samuel, in which King Saul was commanded to wipe out the entire evil Amalekite nation.
Because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quoted this week's portion -- "Remember what Amalek did to you" (25:17), the South African government claimed he was commanding soldiers to commit genocide.
It was an absurd and malevolent misreading of the Bible and of Jewish tradition. The commandment, as observed by Jews today, is to remember the evil of Amalek and fight ...
