Bechukosai

 בס״ד

Bechukosai

You’re the stubborn of the stubborn,

You were chosen for this reason,

I’m aware that you won’t follow,

The directions you’ve been given.

No means will be successful,

Not the carrot nor the stick,

Though the club is somewhat bigger,

You won’t get the point real quick.

But don’t think that it’s so simple,

That onesh always fits the crime,

This equation’s complicated,

And the solution’s only Mine.

You will see when counting cattle,

As they pass beneath your staff,

Every tenth you will make kodesh,

Whether seed, or whether chaff.

I’ll not elevate the good alone,

Nor excoriate just the bad,

My judgement’s subtle and profound,

The answer never to be had.

Behar

 בס״ד

Behar

Those who live in cities,

Behind their walls secure,

Have less of an attachment,

To the dwellings they procure.

So if they sell their bayis,

They’ve but one year to redeem,

The Yovel doesn’t help them,

For so this parsha deems.

But one anointed by the soil,

Who tills the earth, who works the land,

His ancestral plot comes back to him,

When the Yovel is at hand.

In our day, there are few of us,

Sustained alone by crop or yield,

Who trust to rains and harvest,

Who dare go so far afield.

But the Torah seems to teach us,

Redemption ever is at hand,

If your brow is wet with holy sweat,

From planting in the land.

Emor

 בס״ד

Emor

The p’gamim for Kohanim,

are of guf, but not neshama.

Do these reflect some deeper defects,

as in the case of the metzora?

But is it possible to say that

even one was without blemish?

If not in terms of body,

Then certainly of nefesh?

If purehearted, but disfigured,

brings about disqualification, 

does a scoundrel, though unmarred,

not also yield a desecration?

Or is it simply that anyone, 

infirm of limb,

is more likely to err,

when the korban’s brought in?

Kedoshim

בס״ד  

Kedoshim

We’re warned against those profane acts,

In Acharei Mos, but just the facts,

The list is repeated in Kedoshim,

But now set forth with harsh onshim.

From Rav Daniel Kalish my son brought down,

A truth so simple, yet profound:

Though love and firmness are a must,

What children need the most is trust.

Not speaking of their trust in us,

Though add that to our list of musts,

Their good behavior’s bound to stem,

From the trust they see we have in them.

We are as children to HaShem,

And the mitzvos, He trusts us with them,

But if we falter, although He’s kind,

He gives us reasons, Him to mind.

With firmness we are then corrected,

And since His trust is still detected,

We know that it’s yet in our might,

To be kedoshim in His sight.

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.