Thus begins the end. Moses takes his position at the front of the Children of Israel for the last time, to offer a valediction and a blessing. He must, in one grand speech, prepare them to enter the Promised Land -- and without him.
He summarizes the journey so far -- a journey that almost none of the people in front of him experienced personally, at least in its entirety, since the generation of the Exodus died in the desert, almost without exception.
And he brings the narrative to the present moment, foreshadowing the end of his speech and the next phase of the journey, where he will hand over the reins to Joshua. This is a classic introduction, telling his audience where he is going.
This Saturday is a special Sabbath, called Shabbat Chazon, the Sabbath of Vision. It always precedes the Ninth of Av, the saddest day of the Jewish calendar, when the destruction of the Holy Temples took place.
Just as Moses points to the eventual role of Joshua, and the entry into the land of Israel, after his death, so, too, we contemplate the eventual redemption that lies beyond the sadness of the Ninth of Av, and the happiness that is to come.
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
Tune in: SiriusXM Patriot 125, 7-10 p.m. ET / 4-7 p.m. PT
Call: 866-957-2874
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 ...
