Noach

 בס״ד

Noach*

Fifteen cubits above the mountains,

Rose the waters and the rain,

Fifteen higher rose the Taiva,

Upon that boundless main.

The water covered everything,

With waves and foam and salt,

But HaShem was not yet ready,

To call this to a halt.

It would be quite a while,

Before the peaks would reappear,

40 days and nights to cover them,

To recede, more than a year.

Perhaps HaShem was waiting,

For Noach’s tefillah to burst out,

But this wasn’t in his nature,

It’s not what he was about.

Then when the earth was dry he thought,

“My job is done, I think”,

 And dazed he gazed from Ararat,

And poured himself a drink.

                                       * to the tempo of Casey at the Bat, by Ernest Thayer

Bereishis

 בס״ד

Bereishis

What do we do once Moshe’s gone,

With all that we thought we knew?

We hark back e’re the dawn again…

In the beginning, there’s tohu v’vohu.

Each year naturally starts with chaos,

Because who we were is gone,

Born again, and slapped awake,

To recompose our song.

Ends can be hard, and beginnings, too,

Like when loved ones begin a journey,

Be comforted, we’ll surely dance again,

We’ll rise up off the gurney.

Day by day we’ll start again,

With light and water and earth,

We’ll breathe deeply of the air again,

Eve will, once more, give birth.

Zman Simchasenu comes each year,

As the previous year is spent,

For despite the evils of last year,

The good was 80 per cent!

V'Zos HaBracha

 בס״ד

V’Zos HaBracha

Should V’Zos HaBracha feel deprived,

Since it lacks its own parsha?

We read it along with Bereishis,

As part of Simchas Torah.

It is left behind, like Moshe,

By a people that now is a nation,

As they enter the Land of Israel,

Or return to the story of Creation.

Just as Moshe’s kever remains unknown,

As in this portion we leyn,

V’Zos HaBracha is hidden from us,

No weekly sedrah bears its name.

Similarly, with Shimon,

Whose shevet gets short shrift,

They don’t receive their own bracha,

An omission I’d always missed.

Shabbos Chol HaMoed Sukkos

 בס״ד

Shabbos Chol HaMoed Sukkos

We are enfolded,

In the Ananei HaKavod,

Of HaShem’s Compassion.

Just like Moshe Rabbeinu,

In the cleft of the rock.

HaShem is seen only,

 In the trail He leaves behind,

Since He restricts our vision,

To the stony arba’a amos,

Of our own perception.

Beneath the schach,

Space and time are altered.

We can see His light shimmer,

On the edge of the mist,

Though His face remains hidden.

Isn’t it strange that,

Within the cloud,

We see Him best?

Haazinu

 בס״ד

Haazinu

Just listen,

Let the musical words wash over you,

This, the final echo of the shofar.

Just listen,

Triumph, Defeat, Return,

Like the ebb and flow of the tides.

Just listen,

Touched by the winds and currents,

Drifting, silent, beyond time.

Just listen,

Floating upon this song of

Sorrow and Joy,

Disappointment and Achievement,

Separation and Connection,

In equanimity.

Just listen,

As if you are the sea,

 In symphony with the phase of the moon,

And know that I am One with it all.