This week's portion is a beautiful poem, a last appeal by Moses to Heaven and Earth to be witnesses to the renewed Covenant between the Jewish people and God as they prepare to enter the Land of Israel and accept its moral burdens.
It's almost like a ceremonial parting. We don't usually have such ceremonies before a death: they usually accompany a birth, or a bar mitzvah, or a wedding. This is a valediction, and a ceremonial one at that, as Moses prepares to die.
The message is that death, too, is part of life. There are some people who have an impact on us through the way they pass away, not just in the lives they lead.
Moses was one of them; so was Captain Eitan Yizchak Oster, the first Israeli soldier to die in the Third Lebanon War. He quoted G. K. Chesterton in a video he left for his family: “A person does not fight out of hatred from what is in front of him, but out of love for what is behind him.”
A man, a brother, a hero.
This week, we are tackling two major areas of contention between the Trump administration and Democrat governors: fighting crime, and redistricting. The president is sending the National Guard to blue cities -- and blue states are trying to stamp out Republican representation. Is this a civil war situation?
Special guests:
Tune in: SiriusXM Patriot 125, 7-10 p.m. ET / 4-7 p.m. PT
Call: 866-957-2874
This week's portion is the last of the month of Av -- also known as Menachem (Comforter) Av -- which begins in mourning and ends in celebration and anticipation of the New Year and the process of repentance and renewal.
In a similar vein, the portion features Moses offering the Israelites a choice between a blessing and a curse. They are masters of their own fates: if they obey God's commandments, they receive the blessings -- and vice versa.
The key commandment is to reject idol worship. There is said to be something magnetic about the practice of worshiping idols in the new land, such that it would be constant moral battle, both individually and collectively, in the land.
Nowadays, according to Jewish tradition, humanity has lost the urge for idol worship (and the antidote, which is divine prophecy) -- but there are several near substitutes, such as lust or excessive appetites for worldly pleasures.
We are wired for compulsive behaviors, bad habits, and even addictions. These ...
We have so much to talk about this week -- Trump's efforts to negotiate peace through negotiation, and Gavin Newsom's efforts to divide Americans through gerrymandering. We'll also talk about Playboy leaving LA and California.
Special guests:
Frances Martel - Breitbart News foreign editor, on Russia & Ukraine
Bradley Jaye - Breitbart News congressional correspondent, on Newsom
Harmeet Dhillon - DOJ Civil Rights Division chief, on the fight against DEI
Jessica Vaugn - Playboy model on political commentator, on California
Tune in: SiriusXM Patriot 125, 7-10 p.m. ET, 4-7 PT
Call: 866-957-2874