Parsha Poetry

  “Come on up!” God shouted to Jacob as S/He revealed the ladder, which had of course, always been there             But Jacob stepped back   noticing that the angels climbing all over it went down, and not just up.   Midrash records Jacob’s thinking. He tells God: If I come […]

The commentator says, When Esau is down, Jacob is up and when Esau is up,  Jacob is down; Like some kind of divine barometer where our enemy (who used to be our brother)’s fate is reflective of God’s will      somehow As if God would want our enemy, our brother, to suffer just to

We revere Abraham So much that he is always the central character even when the chapter is in someone else’s name The Torah focuses us on him And yet           if we look closely there is a whole supporting cast Two wives, or maybe three, or maybe more, unnamed, And a

In the Bible, God destroys The Wicked wipes out worlds and cities scatters the overly ambitious. In the Bible, the earth opens up and            swallows rebels, and righteousness is vindicated, in the Bible. But those days are long gone. Now God leaves us to destroy      ourselves and it’s

Sometimes I wonder if Old Abe ever Got Tired of being sent this way and that –  Go you! Go for yourself. Go for My sake Go somewhere else now –  Down to Egypt and Up the Mountain. Go. Some people never leave home; never see an ocean or a mountain       or an

Our Sages Taught: The higher the tower, the fewer the bricks. The fewer the bricks, the higher the value. So high, in fact, they were prized  over human life itself. We (sometimes) build to our own            detriment We (sometimes) progress at our own           expense We

  Make ma an ark O God Only please don’t make it from  acacia I don’t want it to catch when the world starts to burn   Make me an ark O God Only please don’t make it from glass I don’t want it to break when stones get thrown   Make me an ark 

Make me an ark I’m ready to get away for awhile It’s too easy to forget that Noah’s journey wasn’t a           pleasure cruise The world was drowning while he floated above   And here I am dying to get away from all this Dying   Make me a shelter to

  It only took two humans        at the Beginning for blame to come into existence He pointed at her She pointed at the snake (who slithered away without a word) And their children were no better Trying to best each other Playing out their sibling insecurities theologically To the point of fratricide, and over

We learn what it means to be the people of Israel: that at any moment as we wander we carry with us two aronot – two sacred burdens. The aron-meitim: The coffin, filled with Joseph’s bones and The aron-kodesh: The Holy Ark, which holds the Commandments; God’s words inscribed in stone. In one hand, our