Ki Sisa

 בס״ד

Ki Sisa

There are no details to describe,

The mask that covered Moshe’s eyes,

When not teaching Yisroel,

Or learning Torah from HaKel.

Was it a mask like the Lone Ranger,

Or maybe something even stranger,

Was it dark or was it light,

Did it completely block his sight,

Or could he see with open eyes,

When he was wearing this disguise?

Of this mask, we never hear again,

No, not even now and then,

Perhaps because he would abstain,

From doing anything mundane?

Could it be his mask was never worn,

Of Torah’s glow not ever shorn,

As if in fact we’re being told,

No act for him was ever chol?

Tetzaveh

 בס״ד

Tetzave

The Torah tells us tales of brothers,

a saga of learning to love the other,

Who is above, and who below,

even with twins, it’s hard to know.

From Hevel and Kayin, to Moshe and Aaron,

will it be murder, or might it be caring?

One to be master, or leadership shared?

one who’s secure, and one who is scared?

But in the end two brothers meet,

and with expressions of affection greet,

Joint shepherds of a bleating nation,

a fitting tikkun for confrontation.

For amid the vestments and the oil,

craftsmen’s work and weavers’ toil,

A place for God is made below,

where brothers love to each bestow.

Terumah

 בס״ד

Terumah

The Luchos which were given -

I “shall” give you.

The details of the Mishkan -

I “will” make known.

Build a Mizbeach -

as you “were” instructed.

Form a Menorah -

as you “are” shown.

The words of parshas Terumah,

refer to future, present, past,

like HaShem, then, time is one,

and so the die is cast.

For this eternal people,

with which a covenant is sealed,

revelations are not locked in time,

they are endlessly revealed.

Mishpatim

 בס״ד

Mishpatim

Do not think that we are meant to dwell

in heavenly realms of cloud and fire.

An elevated existence is not obtained

simply through exalted principles,

but through everyday words and actions.

Fifty three mishpatim,

rooted in ten utterances,

like icy spring water flowing from

a luminous pinnacle,

splashing us awake from our dream.

As such do we define ourselves,

and become Bnei Yisroel,

distinct from those who hold that

faith alone 

or abject submission

redeems.

Yisro

 בס״ד

Yisro

A father-in-law’s unasked advice,

might not always be

well taken.

Yisro put himself in peril,

for he could have been

mistaken.

Was it for Zipporah’s benefit,

so her life would not be

shaken?

Had Moshe’s parents long since spoken,

and their sound advice

forsaken?

But he took the chance and said his piece,

it was judged a risk

worth takin’.

Beshalach

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Beshalach

It’s not meant to be that we cross that Sea,

And leave it behind for good.

It seems we’re tossed upon that Deep,

Like flotsam, shards of wood.

Though Pharaoh’s army reaped the whirlwind,

They in the end were drowned.

We are blasted by eternal winds,

Sinking deeper in the Sound.

You raise Your right hand once again,

And then as if upon a whim,

You cast us into a Redder Sea,

To see if we sink or swim.

You planted us on shaky ground,

Yet like that fiddler on the roof,

We’re playing still the Piper’s tune,

Is that not sufficient proof?

Bo

 בס״ד

Bo

Of all the unclean beasts and birds.

Just the donkey needs redemption,

A mother jenny’s firstborn foal,

Is the Torah’s sole exception.

Because Avraham and Moshe,

With their firstborns by their side,

Chose the plodding donkey,

To take “der kinder” for a ride?

Avraham leapt upon his donkey,

On his way to the akeida,

Moshe dashed for Egypt on one, 

Delaying Gershom’s bris till later.

But Bilaam’s donkey had the vision,

That his master could not reach,

And was gifted ‘ere Creation,

With the aptitude for speech.

And since the donkey is medaber,

Although just that once it spoke,

Like our firstborn it needs pidyon,

Or else its neck is broke?