בס״דֿ
Sukkos/Shabbos
Sprigs, and frond, and fruit, are wed,
‘Neath the sheltering wings of the Sukkah,
We dwell for now in our Father’s home,
Nursed by His love and succor.
Ahavah is the leaf that binds us,
But Yirah is the hand that ties,
Even on Shabbos, He waves us,
Our hearts, our limbs, our minds.
You will be ours, and we’ll be Yours,
As we navigate the year before us,
And we’ll try to sing, with perfect pitch,
In harmony with Your chorus.
בס״ד
Haazinu
Tree and Stone,
Blade and Leaf,
Sun, Moon, and Stars.
These are the witnesses
I call upon.
Such are the אוזניים that hear.
These are the מאזני צדק
That will testify to the
Honesty of the weights
Used in Judgment.
Adjusted, as necessary,
With a wink,
And a loving thumb,
In the right place.
בס״ד
Rosh HaShanah
The highest praise we find for him,
That the Torah can bestow,
Is that Avraham Avinu’s eldest son,
Was skilled with arrow and bow.
What is the point in stating this,
So “damning with faint praise”,
And selecting this for emphasis,
On one of our holiest days?
Could this be to encourage us?
For in Judgement, it suggests,
He’ll praise us just like Yishmael,
For every small success.
בס״ד
Netzavim-Vayeilech
HaYom
know
he will neither release
nor forsake
he loved us before
he will love us later
HaYom
though we witness the past
and hope for the future
in each blink of an eye
He sanctifies both
simultaneously
HaYom
it is only in the now
that, like for Him
time becomes
for us
timeless
HaYom
this ephemeral fertile moment
the umbilicus
through which
what was, and what will be
bear fruit
