V'eschanan

 בס״ד


V’eschanan


Moshe has implored before,

And never been rebuffed,

He pleads again in this parsha,

But now he’s told “Enough”!


I suggest this plea is different,

Than his appeals of other days,

He entreated then for his People,

Now it’s for himself he prays.


I’ve heard another explanation,

Why he couldn’t reach the Land,

If HaShem had let him enter,

Geula would have been at hand.


Sounds like some rationalization,

That our mesorah tries to sell,

“If only we’d done such-and-such,

All would have turned out well”.


On my tougher days it seems as if,

We’re playing blind man’s bluff,

And no matter what we might have done,

It would not have been “enough”.


So if it’s all the same to you,

I’ll stick with my suggestion,

And beseech HaShem for others,

One of Moshe’s final lessons.


This is the hope I cling to,

On this Shabbos of consolation,

Please, my brother, take my hand,

And let us seek compassion.




Devarim

 בס״ד



Devarim


Enough already,

The time to recover from eggel and onesh

is over,

Gone is the moment for licking wounds and

taking stock,

Now is the time to leave Har Chorev.

Rav L’Chem


Enough already,

Your time in the wilderness

is past,

Around and around Seir, this mount of Esav,

you have circled,

The time is ripe, the Land awaits.

Rav L’Chem


Enough already,

It is time for you to gather your strength,

and for me to be gathered.

Yehoshua will lead you,

move forward without delay,

Without me, yet in my footsteps.

L’Chayim!

HaRav L’Chem



Mattos-Maaseh

 בס״ד



Mattos-Maaseh


How fortunate is the woman who

having made a vow

can be released by husband or father


How blessed is the man who has

a wife or a daughter

who vows out of love for HaShem and His Torah


How favored is the man whose wife,

knowing better,

advises him not to vow in the first place


And a wise man is heedful of the binah

whispering softly to him

from within a woman’s eyes




Pinchas

 בס״ד



Pinchas


Sometimes we’re judged by where we are,

Like Yishmael beneath the tree,

Or, like Moav, not on what you have done,

But on what in the future will be.


The tribes of Midian will be destroyed,

But weren’t these the ones,

Who sheltered Moshe long ago?

Yet Amalek lives on?





Acharei Mos