Shabbos Chol Hamoed Pesach

 בס״ד

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

 בס״ד

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

 בס״ד

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.