This week's Torah reading tells the incredible story of the reconciliation of Jacob and Esau. Jacob wrestles with an angel, and prevails; at the end, he receives his new name, Israel, which describes a struggle with God -- perhaps the best description of the ongoing Jewish philosophical orientation to the world.
Jacob and his family continue into the Land of Israel, and a disturbing incident takes place, in which his daughter Dinah is kidnapped and raped by Shechem.
Her brothers pretend to deal with the local residents to allow her to marry Shechem, the local prince. But they soon rescue her instead -- slaughtering the entire town along the way. Jacob is horrified by their behavior and worries that it will make him more vulnerable to attack by other inhabitants of the land.
Instead, however, the aggressive tactics of the brothers cause others to fear Jacob and his family, despite their small number -- a tale with resonance today.
Despite his family's overall success, Jacob loses his beloved wife, Rachel, who dies giving birth to Benjamin. It is a loss from which he will never recover -- but her legacy would live on through the early kingship of Israel and the Temple.
We're a little light on guests at the moment, and it gets tougher as we head into the holidays, but there's no shortage of topics to discuss. The most pressing issue this week is whether Israel will attack Iran's nuclear sites. It's ready.
We'll also talk about California's new senator, Adam Schiff -- a total embarrassment to the country, who has the nerve to accuse Kash Patel of conspiracy theories when it was Patel who disproved Schiff's "collusion" hoax.
Schiff not only spun the false "Russia collusion" story, abusing his position on the House Intelligence Committee to do so, but he also falsely claimed that President Donald Trump had not been targeted by the Obama "wiretaps."
We'll also talk about what protests could look like, as the Democrats struggle to resurrect their so-called "resistance" from eight years ago. And, yes, we will talk about the drones, which remain a mystery even after weeks of appearances.
One special guest: Adam Swart, of Crowds on Demand, about protests....
What a week, and what a weekend. Just seven days ago, President Joe Biden pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, before jetting off to Angola. And this week, Syrian rebels advanced rapidly until toppling Bashar al-Assad this morning.
Meanwhile the incoming Trump administration continued to name appointees and to prepare the way for a new era in American politics. Pete Hegseth fought for his nomination at DOD, while Musk and Ramaswamy promoted DOGE.
Oh, and Bitcoin hit $100k, with good news for investors on other fronts, even if the November jobs report was relatively weak. There's a sense that things can't get worse, but that they are just about to get much, much better.
What's next?
We'll ask:
Matthew Boyle - Breitbart News political editor, on the Hegseth nomination
Emma-Jo Morris - Hunter Biden laptop journalist, on the sweeping pardon
Jerome Hudson - Breitbart News entertainment editor, on Hollywood revivals
Tevy Troy - author of "The Power and the Money," on Trump and business
Tune...
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 ...
