self-referential

The Midrash shows us Moses on the Mount
inquiring why some characters get crowns.
He's told there'll come a sage, on whose account
whole tomes unfurl from what's been written down.
Time-travel's not the greatest wonder here; 
Akiva's martyrdom goes unexplained.
The prophet like whom there will be no peer
is struck with awe, and wonderment unfeigned.
"Echad" rings with the sage's final breath;
he smiles as if he needs no further word.
The reader gropes for meaning in his death;
our world--as we encounter it's--absurd.
No afterlife's explicit in the text;
it's not for us to know what's coming next.