Acharei Mos

 בס״ד

Acharei Mos

It seems that pairs provide kapara,

Like Nadav and Abihu,

The goats L’HaShem and L’Azazel,

A set of doves can help us, too.

And yet it makes me wonder,

Why death should help at all,

Isn’t life lived re-directed,

The best kapara for a fall?

The praises of the living,

Be they man or beast or bird,

Can’t be offered by the ones deceased,

Who do not speak a word.

So on this yahrtzeit of my parents,

Who passed on ten years apart,

I pray my words bring them kapara,

Since they live still in my heart.

Shabbos Chol Hamoed Pesach

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Shabbos Chol Hamoed Pesach

The pilgrim’s robe was dusty,

And he bore a heavy sack,

To give thanks for all God’s bounty,

To be seen, and then go back.

Not a wanderer like his fathers,

To reach a place they’d never known,

Their goal was yet a promise,

A place they would be shown.

We learn from Moshe on the mountain,

That HaShem cannot be seen,

God’s speech reveals His presence,

One must perceive where He has been.

As a wanderer he’d beseeched Him,

To show His glory and His face,

But the pilgrim scales a well trod height,

Content, to reach His holy place.

Metzora/Hagadol

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Metzora/HaGadol

A dove’s somber songs,

echo someone who mourns,

it’s low coo-a-coo,

sounds of sadness.

Both metzoras and zavs, 

rely on these doves,

to change their dejection,

to gladness.

Just two little birds,

to repair what occurred,

tahara reborn,

from the ashes.

Tazria

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Tazria

a shroud of tzara’as,

blossoms abundantly,

contaminated sap,

expelled to the coarse, outer husk,

to be shed,

as a serpent’s skin,

or eucalyptus bark,

promising new growth, 

within an old stump,

and declared tahor,

yet, if one bloom is missing,

tameh.

Shemini/HaChodesh

בס״ד

Shemini/HaChodesh

This parsha’s well versed in mammalogy,

Ichthyology and herpetology,

All the birds it knows flat,

Like the crowned Duchiphat,

But it’s fuzzy about entomology.

We have flying, swarming things,

And teeming ones, without wings,

Yet they walk on four legs?

This biology begs,

Six or eight has a much truer ring.

Is the Torah so speaking, perchance,

About centipedes, spiders, and ants,

Which have at least four,

Or a hundred or more?

It’s not really clear at first glance.

No, the parsha’s directing our focus,

On that kosher grasshopper or locust,

Which walks with just four,

Then it jumps with two more,

Rashi warns us to take careful notice.

Tzav/Parah

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Tzav/Parah

The kohanim, at their inauguration.

Offer flour for their consecration,

Boiled, then baked, then fried into buns,

Thus did Aaron and his sons. 

But bun is not the proper label,

It sounds to me more like a bagel,

In scorching oil let it float,

Voila! We have sufganiot!

Is this a hint to Chanukah,

And the minhag of sufganiya,

Or a reference to the chait ha’egel,

A golden crust upon the bagel?

If so, there’s something missing please,

A slice of lox, a shmeer cream cheese,

A bit of onion, a little heatin’,

Now you’ve got some real good eatin’.

I would surely be in awe,

If some Navi ever saw,

In the cakes of Aaron and his sons,

Those Sunday breakfasts yet to come.

Vayikra

 בס״ד

Vayikra

Upon the sacrificial lamb,

two hands rest,

with a sense of regret, 

for that act, and this.

Sanctifying through touch,

and with bracha,

like waving the Kohain,

or blessing the children.

Warmth, tangible as breath,

a fluttering of life,

each padded finger caressing,

every woolen curl.

Between penitent and korban,

at this poignant, tactile moment,

a shimmer of no substance,

 passes.

A tear is shed,

anointed now is the emissary,

the shaliach, bearing away error,

like the shearing off of fleece.