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
בס״ד
Ki Savo
Sons and daughters wrenched away,
Or by enticing tenets taken,
Powerless to bring them home,
The ground beneath us shaken.
But according to Yeshiyahu,
They will be restored once more,
The ships of Tarshish steer them back,
Consoled upon our shore.
בס״ד
Ki Seitze
If a man must heft a burden,
Which is way too much to bear,
Help to lift it to his shoulders,
It’s important that you care.
But it could be what he carries,
May be be likened to a monkey,
Hooting, climbing, riding him,
As if he were a donkey.
Sometimes the thing that weighs on him,
Borne nobly like a crown,
Defines him and yet crushes him,
He’s afraid to put it down.
When his bundle finally falls,
And comes crashing all around,
You might try then to convince him,
To leave it on the ground.
בס״ד
Shoftim
Prophets come and prophets go,
But how are we to really know,
Who is false and who is not,
What’s the truth and what’s a plot?
We hear mostly what we want,
If we don’t, we’ll slur and taunt,
Til someone comes and pleases us,
Never heeding what we must.
The prophet truly has to fear,
About the things we need to hear,
His words may fall on deafened ears,
And he’ll have wasted all those years.
If the future doesn’t come to be,
What he warned us we would see,
Does that really guarantee,
For certain he’s a false navi?
Or could it be some words struck bone,
And turned we some from what we’re prone,
To do if we’d been left alone,
This deflection leading us back home?
בס״ד
Re’eh
There is a void
and they fill it
with meat
It’s odd that through
consuming flesh
our soul might come
to be nourished
Not the simple act of eating
like that of the beast
which we consume
To elevate, to raise,
to offer up
through a higher service
the physical to the spiritual
Thus the taavahs
of heaven and earth
are reconciled
בס״ד
Eikev
The parsha of Eikev arrives on the heels,
Of V’eschanan’s Aseres HaDivros,
Yet the gematria of עקב is 172,
The count of the words back in Yisro.
189 words by V’eschanan’s count,
Subtract and you get 17,
The gematria’s טוב, so it’s all very good,
We should learn from this difference, it seems.
Words can’t fully express a thought or idea,
As a poet I know this too well,
God gave over at Sinai the thoughts in the words,
Which takes more than one phrasing to tell.
Torah Sh’bichtav contains Torah Sh’baal peh,
We could learn from these Divros’ differences,
Our Torah is read with both lyric and song,
Because concepts are broader than sentences.
So when treading the path of the mitzvos,
Step lightly and keep a sharp eye,
What seems little’s not smaller,
What seems big isn’t taller,
On that you can surely rely.
