Ve’zot HaBerakha
after forty years of
shouting myself hoarse
I’ll use my last breaths
to bless you. oh Israel,
I wrestled the angel to
win your berakha. you
can’t see my face but I
can see yours, all upturned
and regretful. know that I
can give you all this; know
this is all I can give you. I
see your whole future and am
frightened for you. I see your
whole future and I love every
ugly bit of you. I look God in
the eyes and see all you can be
in Their cool, measured stare.
I wish you goodbye with a kiss.
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Yitro
a mountain overturned
sheets spread smooth rippling
luxurious on a sturdy frame
a mountain overturned and all
in fire, all in ashes,
a revelation or a grave--
we are trembling in terror/awe.
the only thing you cannot create
is our terror/awe;
you created the world to
finally see your reflection
and when you find the
waters still & opaque you
think, maybe I will un-create,
maybe then I can excuse this
longing, this loneness.
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Va’etchanan
rav lekha,
why do you think me keeping
your foot from this soil means
I love you less. why plead for
this imagined redemption. was
not this your redemption: my
voice thundering through you,
my eyelashes kissing your cheek
as you hid behind the rock. tent
flaps blowing open to welcome you
in, further in. you spent forty years
wandering and I loved you; you
carried the Torah on your lips, in
your veins, and I loved you. come,
like the Leviathan, and play with
me. we are holy wanderers, we are
holy in our wandering. rav lekha,
why cry over a border when I’ve
given you the whole world.
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Re’eh
when I whisper words to you all sweet and
seductive, all casual care and gentle persuasion,
you cannot kill me for it. when you follow me,
gladly, thoughtlessly, it will feel like falling.
you’ll never regain your feet. I suppose you’re
not worried about a temptress--suppose you think
you’ve learned from Adam. when your city is
reduced to death & ashes, you’ll have only yourselves
to blame.
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Ki Tissa
hide in the cleft of the
rock, my dove, and I
will lay my palm on
your cheek, your softly-
shut eyes--you will see
only my voice and my
back, but this is what I
meant, when I said face-
to-face. me, gazing at you;
you, blind and expectant.
when I lift my palm, you
will be so glorious it hurts.
you are too good for them
and you will return to them.
maybe it will hurt, that they
can’t look upon your face as
I did. you love them and they
cannot see you; you love them
and they will only ever see your
veil or my glory. but when I passed
you, hidden in the cleft of the rock--
your eyelids fluttering, hair stirring,
breath soft but eager and the faintest
flush on each cheek--
I thought, maybe I have never looked
at a human face before.
I thought, you were the loveliest thing
I’d ever seen.
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Bamidbar
strip off your wedding
garments, my groom--
I’ll carry you on my bare
shoulders and cradle you
so gently and together we
will be lost, ownerless,
wandering, untethered,
bound.
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Tetzaveh
make atonement with my
tattered sweater, these self-
ripped jeans, each hastily-
wrapped scarf. give them
a vision of patterned skirts
hairy legs dangling tzitzis
scuffed boots and let them
be forgiven. let me wear what
feels holy and be forgiven.
when I am dressed, thoughtfully,
as my fullest self--I am so
divine. on my forehead, along
the brim of a hat or the tassel
of a drooping scarf, it reads
holy to hashem. every day that
I wake up, I prepare myself to
serve you.
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Vayikra
I would like to live in
this world where every
person repents of sin the
moment it’s realized--
eagerly, open-handedly.
where we watch our guilt
and filth go up in flames,
its flickering so lovely,
its scent so pleasing.
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Behar-Behukkotai
if only you follow these laws,
my am segulah,
my kingdom of priests
my holy nation,
I will dwell amongst you--
the land will sing growth
and the food will sit full
in your soft & swelling stomachs,
will I love you?
I will not loathe you.
vehechezakta bo,
it is so much easier to
prevent disaster than to
reverse it.
until you rid this land of vicious beasts,
I cannot promise that you
may lie down.
this land is yours when you are holy,
holy nation.
hashiva shofteinu k’varishonah,
there is no perfect past to which
I can restore you, just this,
the sacred future you shape.
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Ha’azinu
I found you in the howling wastes gave
form to stubborn clay dangling al bli-mah
fought for you even when I knew I shouldn’t
nursed you held you clothed you anointed
you in oil and sent you off with a kiss on
your shining brows, knowing once you turned
away I’d never see your face again. when I see
you hurtling forward, all stiff-necked refusal and
bitter failure, Truth blooms vindicated from the
ground with a knowing frown and I chose you
because I cannot defend you; I’d never know you
loved me if I hadn’t felt you loathe me, would never
treasure every sweet liberation if I hadn’t seen the
howling wastes from which you wrested it.
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Vayelekh
we are here because
we are here because
we are here because
we are here,
chazak v’ematz our love
will last far longer than
we do,
chazak v’ematz I can’t
have done enough but
I am done,
you will fail and you
will return.
she knew from the
moment she made you
that you’d fail and yet,
she cast down truth to
breathe life into your
nostrils,
tentative and hopeful.
you will fail and she
will fail and you will
return to one another,
stepping with joy into
the fullness of what you
might, someday, be.
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Nitzavim
you are standing here this day,
all of you,
for the last time--
breathe in, look around.
lower your head and feel your
great-great-great-granddaughter’s
breath tickling your neck.
look around at your proud, huddled
masses.
you are standing here this day,
to hear Torah you will only ever
live by half.
when this is over, when you have
heard the Torah that is not in Heaven,
you will stumble away like calves,
learning to walk on solid ground.
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Mattot-Masei
we know that we have tested you--
have fought, bitterly,
cruelly--
have bitten the hand that feeds
us with relish--
have cast off every yoke only to
reassume it--
we know that you are old and weary
from years of bearing us in your arms
but we, we are not ready to let go.
drag us away, kicking and screaming.
we’ll smile grimly as our enemies
fall from the sky;
they will not know we smile because
they keep coming.
fly closer, soldiers and gods--
we need just a little bit more time.
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Ki Tetze
at sundown you passed
by him and said, I think
I found your soul & shoes
lying by the side of the road,
can you prove these are yours?
and his face looked down at you,
G-d’s face looked down at you,
his bare feet swung in the wind &
you nodded with them, said “oh,
god, I knew you were guilty” and
blew back his soul with a kiss.
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Emor
it did not work,
and so I am elevated;
I am alone,
and so I am elevated;
I cannot make my own
holiness, only sit here at
an empty table eating
parched & sacred grain.
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Vayakhel-Pekudei
you forced off my jewelry to
pay your penance but this
I’ll give for free. remember
in Egypt, our hands burned
raw by rope eyes squint shut
against the sand and us, soft
and brilliant in the copper--
I am handsomer, I said.
I am handsomer, I say.
remember you loved me so
sweetly, and worshipped these
golden feet. remember, you
needed no instruction.
you’ve built your worship
like a woman’s body and
kept me out of it.
I’ll sit here spinning the
wool off each small & bleating
goat, watch your elaborate
dance in this copper reflection,
glinting golden in the sunlight--
and if I miss a moment of it,
then no matter. you don’t need
to show me. I already know how
it feels, to be purified in blood.
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