Korach

 בס״ד

Korach

Korach’s gang was swallowed up

and a plague beset the Am

but his influence then ended

unlike Dahtan and Aviram.

“The land of milk and honey”

to mitzrayim they applied

heaping scorn upon a holy land

disparaged by the spies.

I’d have strapped them to a camel

and sent them back down south

and, if they lived, to then be drowned

in the Nile’s murky mouth.

“Tov ha’aretz meod meod”

Calev ben Yephunneh pleaded

and to any Jew whose worth his salt

this imperative is heeded.

One might have grounds to live in galus

mishpacha, parnassa, learning

but do not speak ill of the land

its our soul that you are spurning.

Shelach

 בס״ד

Shelach

When HaShem says to Moshe, “Shelach Lecha”,

too many options abound.

To Avraham His words,

were “Lech Lecha”, which,

has a much more compulsory sound.

Avraham questioned not the command,

he thought only to swiftly obey.

If Moshe alone,

 had come to the Land,

he’d have hotfooted in right away.

“Shelach Lecha” sounds like reluctant advice,

having little insistence behind it.

You can if you want, 

(but know there’s a chance,

that you won’t like the way that you find it.)

“Lech Lecha” doesn’t give you much choice,

one must rise to the challenge to do it.

But with rashus to eschew, 

what they knew they should do,

the meraglim went in, and they blew it.

Transpose if you can, the case of Iran,

“Shelach Lecha” once was an option.

but then “Lech Lecha” came,

threat of nuclear rain,

left us no choice, just like Hobson.*

* Hobson’s Choice: a free choice that is actually no choice at all

Beha'aloscha

 בס״ד

Beha’aloscha

It might have been a better choice,

The munn to cease, when raised our voice,

For it is the way, when lacking nothing,

To think you need some other something.

Would have been wiser to rely,

On food from earth, and not from sky,

Which we had a role in making,

Growing, raising, cooking, baking.

Our offerings brought true satisfaction,

Joy and achdus, born of action,

We filled our hearts, from what we gave,

Not just our stomachs, like some slave.

Some blame it on the erev rav,

That traded, for a flight of slav,

Was single heart that we had gained,

When love, not quail, upon us rained.

Naso

 בס״ד

Naso

In the shul where I grew up,

Above the Aron, with its cover,

Two lions there, each other faced,

The luchos guarding over.

That’s how it appeared to me,

When I was just a child,

I told my friends God spoke from there,

Between those lions wild.

How could I have known as Moshe knew,

In this parsha’s brief conclusion,

God’s song ascends the covered Ark,

‘Tween golden winged cheruvim.

That image still resides in me,

And when I feel disconnected,

I strain, in tears, to hear His voice,

As if from Mishkan, just erected.

Could it be that best His words we hear,

Not in our isolation,

But when one listens, and is heard,

 God joins the conversation?

Bamidbar

 בס״ד

Bamidbar

Each half shekel was not the same

worn edges and tarnished faces

unique to each

a history and personality of its own

Yet valued as if newly minted

each coin carrying the imprimatur

of its bearer

whom the Molder had fashioned by hand

By this we were counted

like the gifts of the Nesi’im

identical, but not

no two hearts beating just the same

And the One who knows recognizes

from every unseen trace of sweat

and each adhering speck of arid dust

the soul who bore it

Behar-Bechukosai

 בס״ד

Behar-Bechukosai

“Do what I tell you”, it reads not ungently,

You’ll be better off, both physc-ly and ment-ly,

Go as commanded in the path that I set,

(It’s not a suggestion, on that you can bet.)

About Noach it says that he walked with HaShem,

Avraham travelled before Him, but then,

The path that we follow is not quite so clear,

The trail that we tread, which we hope brings us near.

Nusachim, minhagim, they all play a part,

They grab at our kishkas, they pull at our heart,

Halacha is subject to: where, when, and how,

Sometimes its hard to know what to hold now.

Are we given more credit than our Fathers before us,

If we get it wrong, is there less of an onesh,

Like blind men we edge along, tapping our cane,

On a cliff masked with shadow, temptation, and pain.

We depend on Your brachos, the ones that You pick,

Please guide us with carrot, instead of the stick,

We cannot walk with or before as they did,

We have to seek after…’cause You’re so well hid.

Emor

 בס״ד

Emor

Food for HaShem?

Served by an untainted Kohen,

Only the best is offered,

With a wave.

Is HaShem such a picky eater?

Did he not bestow every blotch

And blister which appears upon man or beast?

But HaShem only does what is good for us,

“The castaway shall not remain cast away”,

He declares.

So, it is not for Him that the

Blemished are banished, but for us,

So that we should not err as

Kayin did, in the beginning,

Saving the choicest for himself,

Thus diminished,

By his own hand.