Devarim

 בס״ד

Devarim

With devarim the world was created,

And with Devarim the Torah ends,

This time the words are Moshe’s,

And all that this portends.

We finally learn what Moshe thinks,

His words are not commanded,

No “say to them the words I speak”,

He has permission to be candid.

For 36 days he speaks to them,

From the day Shevat begins,

On zayin Adar his words abate,

His hidden kever, placed within.

Were his admonitions newly wrought,

Fresh reflections given air,

Or had he been collecting them,

For 40 years, to share?

His song rings out, a pealing bell,

The people all give ear,

As if they stand again at Sinai,

But now it’s Moshe’s toll they hear.

Maatos-Maaseh

 בס״ד

Maatos-Maaseh

Calev ben Yephunah, haKenizi,

Adopted son of Kenaz,

Who married his widowed mother.

Only here is he mentioned before Yehoshua,

And called haKenizi.

Some say to indicate that now,

On the cusp of entering the land,

They are equal, but how?

Yehoshua, of Ephraim, of Yosef,

Whose rule saved us in Mitzrayim.

Calev, of Yehudah, the tribe of 

Dovid HaMelech, the King of Israel.

Calev and Yehoshua, Yehudah and Yosef,

Twin harbingers of Moshiach.

One in the land, and one in galus.

But Kenaz, through his love and kindness,

Raises a boy, bereft of father, as his own,

Earning his chelek in the ancestry

of Redemption.

Pinchas

 בס״ד

Pinchas

it’s so odd

Pinchas, Aaron’s grandson,

born too soon to be a kohen,

yet priesthood a part of his bloodline

through the lineage of Yisro,

priest of Midian.

it’s too odd

this scion of Yisro,

earns his priesthood

by eliminating a flaming ember of

Midian burning within Am Yisroel,

which his forebear had, on his own,

extinguished within himself.

odd beyond belief,

Yisro, chosein Moshe,

Zipporah, Moshe’s wife,

both kin of Pinchas through his mother,

daughter of Putiel* of Midian,

wife of Elazar HaCohen…

This Pinchas must be the one

to break the spell.

• see Rashi, Kli Yakar.  Puti -> Putiel -> Yisro

Balak

 בס״ד

Balak

HaShem puts blessings into Bilaam’s mouth

No iniquity or perversion is to be found

We arise like a lion

To be blessed, not cursed

Such accolades are placed on Bilaam’s tongue

And yet, to us, He sends plague after plague

Fiery serpents, and a pestilence of quail

His wrath burns against us

He pledges to annihilate us

Like a parent, who scolds and disciplines

His recalcitrant child

Yet defends him and protects him

From those who wish him harm

We did not hear HaShem praising us

 And we were unaware of Bilaam’s curses

Which were turning, as in our time,

Into blessings

Chukas

 בס״ד

Chukas

red cows burned to ashes,

copper serpents that cure,

rivers of blood flow,

from where, they’re unsure.

waters of strife that rush from a stone

when struck, bli discussion,

no way to atone.

safe passage refused by

the king of Edom,

Moav defeated, and so is Sichon,

their cities are taken, and stripped

to the bone,

loot relinquished to Heaven,

and none taken home.

Og is unseated, that hulk from Bashan,

no future throne shall

his bulk rest upon.

in the thick of this, Aaron,

is called to return,

not to enter that good land,

we failed to discern.

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