This is my favorite portion in the entire Torah, and often brings me to tears. After Judah's passionate plea on behalf of Benjamin, Joesph reveals himself to his brothers, and comforts them, saying their sin was part of God's plan.
Pharaoh, too, is delighted, and urges Joseph to bring his family, including his elderly father, to Egypt. Pharaoh adds: "Do not even give a thought to your belongings." (44:20). There perhaps is an important lesson in that remark.
When we make changes, we have to commit to them. Jacob and his sons would have to leave the Promised Land to descend to Egypt. In doing so, they would certainly have been wondering if they were making a reasonable choice.
Were they not already in the Promised Land? Why wouldn't they stay there once they had arrived? Hadn't it been hard enough to return once, when Jacob -- now Israel -- had to face the prospect of war and death at the hands of Esau?
Sometimes we have to make choices that turn out to be part of our overall destiny, even if they do not appear at first to be in line with our goals. That does not mean giving up on our goals, but perhaps giving up a level of control.
Note that Pharaoh -- at this stage, a God-fearing character -- does not tell them to forget about the Land of Israel. He tells them to forget about their "belongings" -- their material possessions that they must one day lose anyway.
We have to let go of things that do not matter in order to make choices that take us down unexpected paths toward the things that matter most. And we have to trust that God Himself in in charge of our overall mission and journey.
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 ...
