This week's portion sees Moses continue his recapitulation of the Exodus narrative, complete with a repetition of the Ten Commandments. Moses also looks forward to the future, warning of a future Exile -- but also promising that it would be followed by a redemption, and a return.
The additional reading is a famous portion from Isaiah chapter 40, verse 1: "Be comforted, be comforted, my people." For the next several weeks, the additional reading will offer similar comforts and good tidings.
This Sabbath also happens to be Tu B'Av (the 15th of Av), which is the "Jewish Valentine's Day." According to the Mishnah:
Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said: There were no days as joyous for the Jewish people as the fifteenth of Av and as Yom Kippur, as on them the daughters of Jerusalem would go out in white clothes, which each woman borrowed from another. ... And the daughters of Jerusalem would go out and dance in the vineyards. And what would they say? Young man, please lift up your eyes and see what you choose for yourself for a wife. Do not set your eyes toward beauty, but set your eyes toward a good family, as the verse states: “Grace is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised” (Proverbs 31:30), and it further says: “Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates” (Proverbs 31:31).
https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Taanit.4.8?lang=bi
Proverbs 31, by the way, is recited every Sabbath, before the Friday evening meal, particularly in religious families, where it is performed as a song, "Eshet Chayil" ("A Woman of Valor" ).
https://www.chabad.org/parshah/default_cdo/aid/36233/jewish/Vaetchanan.htm
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 ...
