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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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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Ki Tavo
breathe sanctity into her sweetly & sincerely,
water her with Torah and she’ll bring forth for
you blossoms--you’ll tie their fruits and cry out
“behold! what we have made, together” and they
will be the first of many; maybe they will appear
so beautifully, so regularly that you begin believing
she will always blossom for you. maybe you’ll even
decide you could tear these from the ground yourself,
sweet and fleshy and fully-birthed.
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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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Shoftim
be perfect with the lord your G-d
be perfect with G-d be perfect, G-d
& I swear I will prophesy only bad
things so you can avert them so you
can see us imperfect and striving for
perfection so you can see that our
faith is fragile and immense so that
you can be perfect even when we are
not.
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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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Ekev
wish we could tell you if
we had this in plenty and
never went wanting we’d
still trail you so sweetly &
desperately, hands clutching
these overflowing baskets--
that even if you hadn’t held
us hostage, we’d still bind
ourselves to you.
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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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Devarim
maybe I can say it all again and
this time--
finally--
you’ll hear me?
maybe I can say it all again and
you’ll bow your heads, all
sad deferential & grateful,
you’ll know what I have
sacrificed for you.
God sees you from above
but I see you from within and
you are so much dirtier and
lovelier than They know.
maybe this time,
with my own words,
they’ll reach beyond this
ephemeral glowing veil and
you’ll see that I am human,
that I am just human,
just like you.
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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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Pinchas
wage peace, with love and viciousness
and certainty. lay your bleeding body
prostrate before God and cry,
is this what you wanted?
remember you cannot always wait for
them to decide. remember--
they may not want to decide.
remember you are too fierce and too
kind to stand waiting. every moment
you stand still you stand with them.
every moment you stand still you stand
with them. can you feel them easing the
spear from your clenched fists, can you
feel how easy it would be to--
no. fight them jealously, lovingly. fight for
God; fight God. still, standing.
make your bloody peace.
break their bloody silence.
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Balak
like the lioness, enemy nations
dangling from her jaws, she and
her young greeting holy dawn with
a roar, fierce and touchy and lonely
like the lion, so proud in his lazy
kingship; so brilliant from afar, but
up close you see his yellowed teeth,
his tangled mine, and that great,
drooping head--crowned with glory,
heavy in defeat.
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Chukat
this time with no Miriam to
lead us, we shake out our
timbrels and dance with abandon,
cries bursting from each rough,
wet throat. we sing as our mothers
did, the waters lapping at our feet,
hopping about each severed limb.
we sing that we are saved, we sing
that we are sated.
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Korach
we are not all holy,
but we can be, she
murmurs, dribbling
wine between his
stubborn lips and
laying him down
softly on the earth.
she sits at the entrance
of the tent her bare
hair a curtain flap her
bare hair brushing his
cheeks so gently that
he cannot look away,
and they cannot look
toward him. not all
promises are worth
keeping, she insists,
lifting a furious gaze to
any who dare pass by. we
all can be holy, she says,
drawing her hair into thick
braids. in between her darting
fingers, he sees the earth open
its mouth wide.
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Shelach Lekha
when I came down the mountain after 40 days
with honey on my tongue and milk in my breasts
I said it is sweet and I said it is nourishing and
you did not believe me;
but when they come down from the land after 40 days
laden with grapes pomegranate juice sticky on their lips
and they say it is too rich they say it is bitter they say
you will not devour, you will be devoured,
you fall to hopeless weeping. you do not even ask for
a taste.
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