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News and commentary for Thursday, 22 January, 2026.

News and commentary for Wednesday, 21 January, 2026.

News and commentary for Tuesday, 20 January, 2026.

News and commentary for Monday, 19 January, 2026.

Love and Torah – what’s love got to do with it? This study series is based on the “Two Great Commands” – love Yahweh and love your neighbor.

In Ephesians 5, Rabbi Steve Berkson continues teaching us how to love each other. Stopping at verse 1, he expounds on becoming imitators of Elohim as dear children.

In verse 2, we are exhorted to walk in love as the Messiah also loved us, giving ourselves to others as a gift to Elohim. Do you want to send up a “sweet-smelling aroma” to Yahweh? Learn to serve others.

In verses 3 and 4, we see a list of behaviors that should not even be named among the Body of Messiah. Rabbi Berkson takes some time to clarify one of those behaviors – uncleanness.

• What do these behaviors have to do with loving each other?

In verse 5, there is something we are expected to know – what is it we should know? Why should we know it?

In verse 6, Rabbi Berkson asks why Paul would write about “empty words”. What are they? Why are we cautioned about them? How have some teachers misconstrued the meaning of “empty words”? How do they affect our inheritance in the Kingdom of Elohim?

In verses 7-10, Rabbi Berkson asks, “Who are you trying to please?”

Rabbi Berkson once again dissects the words in these passages so that you will have a deeper understanding of what Yah expects of you, so that you can do it and receive the blessings.

Part II of the story of ‘the Exodus’ (Vayeira, Exodus/Shemot 6:2 through chapter 9) begins with what Mark Call of Shabbat Shalom Mesa fellowship contends is THE key understanding in the Book, and of the Creator Himself, “ki ani YHVH,” and the fact that He will NOW make that known. It is not that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had never heard that Name, just that He did “not make Himself KNOWN” to them as He is now about to do.

And that includes the first of the “Ten Plagues” of Egypt, although, they are probably better thought of as the “Three sets of three, plus one,” that is different from the others:

Over a number of years of teaching this parsha, Mark has focused on the intriguing patterns among the plagues, and the progression, all of which may well be a harbinger of what we might see during the prophesied “Greater Exodus” to come, the and fact that the plagues are each ‘judgments’ (or even humiliations) of the fake gods of Egypt by the Real One.

He also does not fail to note the “conflation” about Pharaoh’s heart being “hardened,” either by himself, or later on, by YHVH — because there are TWO different Hebrew words used for what happened, but the distinction is often lost in most English translations.

But in the Sabbath Day midrash this time, Mark suggests that current events, including things we have already seen that point to elements of prophecy already making headlines, take us back to the central issue of what makes us human: Free Will. Choice.

Did Pharaoh have it? Shaul, or Paul, in Romans chapter 9, addressed the issue with his famous metaphor of the potter, and his clay, which doesn’t get to ask whether it will be formed into a “vessel for honor,” or the equivalent of an ashtray, destined for something very different.

And is it just possible that the “closing bracket” set of plagues might end up being directed at what we might think of as an “Artificial Intelligence” version of a Skynet Pharaoh?

Does such a creation even have “free will?” Did Pharaoh, at least at some point? And, when did his ‘choice’ become a terminal commitment?

The combined two-part reading and Sabbath midrash:

Mark Call wraps up the news for the week ending January 17th, 2026, with no shortage of commentary and perspective on the perfidy, the petulance, and even the pitiful pretension.

This week special guest, and long-time HNR favorite, Daniel Holdings, joins Mark Call for a candid, and perhaps surprising, look at the week’s news, as well as where we are, and where we are headed.

In last week’s show, host Mark Call talked about the descent of the USA descended into clear insanity.

In the last week, it is not the fact THAT the Criminals in Control lie, it is the acceleration of those lies that stands out. Tampon Tim Walz, caught in levels of corruption that would make the Senile Imposter blush, has doubled-down. And the Far Left is thrilled to have gotten a Soros Stooge to commit SuICEde-by-Cop to distract the Idiocracy for a bit.

None of this should really surprise us; those who can read history, and economics, and sociology, and Scripture have long known it was coming. But the ‘acceleration of the acceleration’ toward collapse may still catch many off-guard.

We should have known the Constitution was made a ‘dead letter’ before the 2020 election was rigged; the intent was simply to “cement the gains,” and make their Communist Revolution permanent. The Election Rig and Fraud in 2024, however, just wasn’t big enough to overcome the landslide.

But STILL< not a single indictment, much less prosecution for treason, has happened. And the violence is being unleashed.