If you've ever struggled with anything -- I mean emotionally, not physically -- there is a moment after you've overcome it, a day after you've made it past that obstacle. That is a moment, or a day, unlike any other. It feels like freedom.
You might have to experience it several times before you are truly free. But it's like rising above the clouds for a moment to see the sun. You can never forget that light. It stays with you. Eventually, it guides you out from the darkness.
I'm nurturing thoughts of that moment today. Many of us have experienced it. My wish for you today, and for the world, is that you will experience it, too. There is no freedom quite like the freedom one gives to, and earns for, oneself.
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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 ...