Mishpatim

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Mishpatim

“A Life for a Life: an Eye for an Eye…”,

This Mishpat we’ve heard before,

But I never noted the context,

I neglected to explore.

Two fighting men collided with,

A woman who was pregnant,

As a result, she lost her life,

What should be the payment?

First, the Torah speaks in general,

“A Life for a Life”, we’re told,

But then adds the limiting details,

Before the posuk’s very old.

“From Clal to Prat”, says Rebbe Yishmael,

Since the limbs are specified,

“A Life for a Life” here means something else,

It’s the value of the one who died.

Yisro

 

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Yisro

The people saw all of the thunder and smoke,

The fire and lightning, too,

“We’re terrified to hear words directly from G-d,

Please let us hear them through you”.

To Moshe He speaks in words loud and clear,

Not in riddles or pictures or dreams,

His words are too much for us regular folks,

Not even Nevi’im, it seems.

So words must be mightier than splitting the sea,

Or the Well, or the Quail, or the Mon,

The myriad plagues that brought Pharaoh down,

The killing of Egypt’s first sons.

The world was created through the speech of HaShem,

Through His letters and words and phrases,

Yet the Voice of creation is beyond us to hear,

As it echoes down through the ages.

Beshallach

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 Beshallach

The Sea of Reeds was neatly split,

By Shamayim’s mighty squalls,

Israel advanced through a drying sea,

Between raging, watery walls.

Withal, Yisroel must contend,

With existential threats,

The matza’s gone, the food runs out,

Their gullets dry, not wet.

It’s true HaShem comes through for us,

Both time and time again,

Yet a People born to slavery,

Pushes Moshe to wit’s end.

Alas…our birth can yet be stillborn,

Because now, for Heaven’s sake,

Though newly delivered from Pharaoh,

We plunge into Amalek.

Bo

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Bo

Three more plagues are coming…

So HaShem tells Moshe “Bo”!

Because Bo is spelled ב״א,

Which adds up to three, you know.

Hashem could have told Moshe “Lech”,

The Baal HaTurim tells us so,

Like when He sent Moshe

 To meet Pharaoh at the river,

That time He used the word “go”.

Lech means “go”, and Bo means “come”

And maybe therein lies the difference,

When you “come” to someone it shows more respect,

You’re showing greater deference.

Maybe HaShem’s intention this time,

By showing esteem מרובה (m’rubeh),

Is to soften with light....Pharaoh’s pitiless heart,

Before the darkness descends.....with the ארבה (Arbeh).

Vaera

 

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Vaera

Moshiach will come when God’s ready,

And not necessarily in a way we expect,

We must be open to see him as he chooses to appear,

Or so says Rabbi Zev Leff.

Moshe expected HaShem to appear,

In a way that the Avos would get,

But God disappoints, in a manner of speaking,

And says “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet”!

Shemos

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Shemos

Midianim brought Yosef down,

To Egypt as a slave,

Not knowing they had bought him there,

So Israel would be saved.

But when Moshe Rabbeinu runs away,

Because he killed the Egyptian,

Who is the one that takes him in?

Yisro, the Priest of Midian.

Then Zipporah rescues Moshe’s life,

Circumcising their son in-the-Inn,

Once more, salvation for our side,

From the hands of Midian.

Vayechi

בס״ד 

Vayechi

Vayechi means: “and he lived”,

But that’s not what Yaakov told Pharaoh,

He said he was old,

But his life had been cold,

Compared to the lives of his Avos.

When Yosef used the phrase “od Avi chai”

As a question - or statement of truth,

He could not perceive,

How his Father had grieved,

All the way back to his youth.

Yaakov wouldn’t tell Pharaoh that he had “lived”,

To say otherwise would be a lie,

’Til he’d savored the juice,

Of the fruit he’d produced,

Now he could respond, Ani Chai.