The story of Jacob's flight -- and his adventures in the household of his uncle Laban -- is one of the most compelling in the Bible, one I related to strongly as a younger man as I left home and college to live on my own for the first time.
Jacob has his dream of the famous ladder, in which God promises to return him back home, to the place he is sleeping -- which, according to tradition, is the future Temple Mount. He then meets Rachel and falls immediately in love.
The story is familiar: he works seven years for Rachel, but Laban swaps Leah in at the last moment, under the veil; Jacob must work seven years more for his beloved. (According to an interpretation in the Talmud, Rachel actually knew her father was going to cheat Jacob, but went along with it because of her concern for her sister's sense of self-esteem. She is praised for her sensitivity, even if she caused her future husband some grief and seven years' more labor.)
Rachel and Leah then compete to bear children, and Jacob begins to strike out on his own, taking what appear at first to be inferior flocks and breeding them so successfully that they multiply rapidly into a strong and valuable herd.
Laban's jealousy causes Jacob to flee, as he pulls a trick of his own (a repeated story in Jacob's life). Laban pursues the family and there is a confrontation, leading to a deal: you on this side, and I on the other. Boundaries are good!
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 ...
