the Fig Leaf (Vayigash)

Exposed, ashamed, the brothers can't deny
they'd sold Yosef, and thought him gone for good.
'Til Joe contrived the diplomatic lie:
they'd merely done what God has meant they should.
The intervening years great changes wrought;
the tactless teen has learned to temper truth.
A handsome lad those Midianites bought
has gained in wisdom what he's lost in youth.
Yehudah, for his part, had grown his soul.
'Though fourth-born, he's now leader of this mob.
Where Reuben's proved unfit to wield control,
the man who can steps forth to do the job.
Pericope of unaccustomed scope
finds reconciliation, past all hope.

vayera

God tested Avraham; those files are sealed;
We're free to speculate on the result.
For cities on the Plain, he'd wheel and deal
but for his own, won't protest, nor consult.
For Muslims, the prime virtue's to submit,
but Jews object where some consent, and nod.
This episode's the hardest one to fit
for one who'd been so intimate with God.
Poor Yitzhak bore the scars throughout his life
of trauma we can never understand.
A surrogate must chastely woo his wife
unbound, but still strait-bounded by the Land.
The sagest can feel lost without a guide
through texts with which we can't be satisfied

Testing, 1 2 3 testing...

"That woman" Sarah snarled "has got to go!"
and Avraham's bewildered at the switch.
As he'd been told to do, he'd done just so.
No man alive could satisfy this bitch.
God rolled the eyes he hasn't strictly got
commiserating with his favorite Jew.
"It's pointless talking while her wrath burns hot
for now, just as she says, you'd better do".
One final test before his trial's done
if one so elevated might rise higher.
Please lay your only one beloved son
to elevate on an impromptu pyre.
Each year, we struggle somehow sense to make
of this pericope, that's still opaque.

Merkavah

Ezekiel saw wheels revolve in wheels
supporting Him who dwells above the skies.
Uncertain if this vision were quite real,
but most explicit: all around were eyes.
Beside the ditch that watered Babylon
where grieving landless transients were kept,
recalling rain-fed fields of days long gone,
the prophet rose, where others sat and wept.
God's cedar footstool Solomon had built
reduced to ashes from the roof to vault
reverberates still in our people's guilt
'Cause history itself is all our fault.
Attentive readers see, if they're astute
Our Lord is ever with us, in galut.

Shemini

Investiture's complete; it's been a week,
These Cohanim are ready to debut.
They've learned to dress, and schecht, and not to speak.
(as grievous as that last feels for a Jew) 
White-clad in linen, purged of sin and fear,
a turban knotted on each oil-slicked head
uniquely set apart, prepped to draw near,
a fancy-dress rehearsal to play dead.
As pure as Aaron's bull, and just as game
as Isaac, when his father'd raised that knife,
these two found consummation in the Flame,
exultant as a groom to take a wife.
Saint Paul proposed salvation's won through Faith;
Jews partner God, and have done, since the Eighth.

tov meod (Sh'lach)

"Exceeding good" the spies described the Land,
evoking Genesis, and that sixth day.
But getting sustenance by one's own hand
instead of manna filled some with dismay.
Adulthood beckons, always with its cost;
our wanderings were catered, stage by stage.
To cross the Jordan, something must be lost
it won't be painless as we come of age.
The Zohar names the manna "bread of shame",
provided without effort on our part.
Once in the Land, we've just ourselves to blame.
The conquest waits for folk of stouter hearts.
God's anger flares, that we'd express such doubt,
but adolescents need to check things out.

shemini

Nadab and Abihu died in a flash
consumed like offerings of meat and bread.
We're left to guess why God would be so rash
but all that's made explicit's that they're dead.
While Moshe put his shoes on, went to work
perceiving his epiphany was done
these twain rushed to explore their priestly perks
perhaps their zeal moved them to jump the gun?
The Book of Job emphatically refutes
a simple tally-sheet of Bad and Good.
'Though Eliphaz emphatically imputes
Job earned his grief, he speaks more than he should.
To sin like Eliphaz, temptation's strong!
But scripture say explicitly, he's wrong

Acharei Mot

cohane gadol grants s'michah to one goat
the other's blood must purify us all
the choice between them's made by goralot
which is exalted, and which takes the fall
since Titus, there's no altar and no rite
our prayers must substitute for blood and flame
now sin is "crimson" and innocence "white"
and we've no priests to expiate our shame
each week, we delve for meaning in the text
unchanging while our history rolls by
and camels that the thinking mind rejects
allegorize to pass a needle's eye
what's found and what's projected's less than clear
we'll read it with new eyes, same time next year     

vayishlach

His brother Esau's inarticulate,
while Jacob's way too clever with his tongue.
That masquerade in Edom's borrowed kit
earned twenty years of sweat, 'midst sheep and dung.
Those twenty years elapsed, and both men grew
each filled a father's and a rancher's niche.
'Though only one of them remained a Jew
each waxed content, and evidently rich.
When last they'd met, one'd threatened violence
but they're more genial than bellicose
the solemn meeting that began so tense
resolves they'll live in peace--but not live close.
They're wholly reconciled, yet dwell apart
two brothers in two lands, 'though one in heart.

vayeshev IV

Yehudah bought his firstborn son a bride
but got no grandson to enlarge his name.
Another wedding, this groom also died
immortalized in English for his shame.
Tamar did what she must to get it done.
She saw her future in its breadth and depth.
Her fam'ly's a dead-end without a son
but men seem too consumed with fear of death.
Predictably, her father-in-law's pissed
and threatens consequences for her act.
But he'd been partner to her road-side tryst
and now, he's man enough to own the fact.
Moshiach's ancestors were deeply flawed
and when he comes, it's 'cause one played the bawd.

dysfunction vayeshev

Jake made his darling shepherd of his kin
embroidered coat for mr. fancy pants.
Great tragedies look small when they begin.
They so resented Joseph's arrogance.
Conspiracy to murder came to naught
Preempted by a passing caravan
Young Joseph's never sold, but swiftly bought
Reuven's out the value of a man.
One last deception, Jacob's left to grieve
As if a second time he'd lost his wife
His father's blessings all seem to deceive
There's not a lot of joy in Jacob's life.
But spare this family just a little while;
with time and growth, they still can reconcile.

growth

While Esau bedded every girl around,
their mother's apron-strings kept Jacob home.
There wasn't room for both in any town
so now, he'll seek adventure on his own.
The paths his father never got to tread,
his mother maps out in her hasty scheme.
New angels to vouchsafe the road ahead
sign in to take their posts within his dream.
Tout-suite, a boy-meets-girl scene at the well
his feisty cousin's quite the lively catch!
But Laban's unsurprised at tales he'll tell;
this adolescent trickster's met his match.
Let Edom lay to rest the old bad blood
embracing his late-blooming brother stud.

chayya Sarah

A slave plays out the type-scene at the spring
for Yitzhak, who must never leave the Land.
Enticing her with camels, gold, and ring
(the last is for her nose, not for her hand).
His master'd charged him: "Go and take a wife!
But do so for the one who can't be there"
Although that ram redeemed his forfeit life,
Our jealous God's still disinclined to share.
By now, Laban weighed harsh on Rivka's nerves
And prospects in her hometown rated low.
This unseen prince could be what she deserves;
she didn't hesitate to say "let's go!".
The match his mother took no time to find
was left to God when he tried dating blind.

Lot's lot

Lot cast his lot among the cityfolk
less trusting in mishpachah than steel gates.
Reprising hospitality as joke
he scarce escaped his neighbors' fiery fate.
Though never doubting Justice must be done,
his uncle interceded for his skin.
Defense he dared not offer his own son,
seemed requisite for his dead brother's kin.
No such destruction's wholly one man's fault;
He had no veto on how things got done.
But now he's widowed by a post of salt,
His daughters felt obliged to get him sons.
Moshiach's ancestor roots in this text--
strange consequence to drunk illicit sex.

the parochial serves the universal

Strange savior to only kin and kine not caring for his fellows in the least at consanguinity, he draws the line, reserving hospitality to beasts. But neighbors got no warning, no reprieve If their own gods don't specify an ark, they got surprised the day it's time to leave succumbing to the flood, and mud, and Dark. Concern for strangers dawns with Avraham A Light until the Nations' something new confronting God with his own moral qualm Refocuses from "species" down to "Jew". If not a "tzaddik", certainly a sage this new protagonist for a new age.

situational

the neighbors must have asked, but Noah shrugged

so done with advertising what he planned.

He used to socialize, 'til he got mugged

but now he's sure they'll never understand.

The voices coming to him in the night--

insisting he must make this box his home--

would only cause the doomed to fret and fight;

 the dreams were meant for him, and him alone.

A later prophet'd warn Assyria

that God did not approve their errant ways

but Noah'd let the folk of Ninevah

go blithely to their fiery end of days.

within his generation, Noah's best.

But Avraham did better by his guest.

Ekev III

transactional theology's a crock;
God's not a butler, coddling your desire.
No human logic--much less Mr. Spock--
finds Springtime rains in goats consigned to fire.
Societies of angels need no rules;
Karl Marx explained the state itself away.
But to accommodate both saints and fools,
we still need codes, and people must obey.
When Job got tzurres that he'd never earned,
compounded by three friends who thought they're wise
God scoffed at what these three thought they had learned;
their victim-blaming schemes he labeled "lies".
Adults who spurn Ekev's stark quid-pro-quo
when raising children, still profess it's so.

Ekev

The quid-pro-quo of Deuteronomy
dissatisfied Job's author, long ago.
No purpose and no teleology
explains why innocent kids suffer so.
First-person testimony from on High
confirms our hero's righteous in all facts.
False friends seek reassurance in their lies
who--were they honest--ought to have his back.
To bring his sons, flocks, herds, back from the dead
strains one's credulity--it's more than odd.
But what's canonical can't be unsaid;
within the b'rit, we're stuck explaining God.
So Jews must re-interpret static words
imbuing sense into this life absurd.

evil precedent

Three fifths the value you'd assess a man
behukotai constrains a woman's place
an age before James Madison's grand plan
we'd codified the West's sexist disgrace.
Obsessing on the happenstance of birth
as if one chromosome defined one's fate
impugning what  our sisters' lives are worth
is not for halakhah  to legislate.
Strange code for how a People should behave
when first they undertook to live lives free.
Remember how it sucked to be a slave
but don't give those you've bought their liberty.
The code for cohanim can be obscure;
what we're supposed to learn here I'm no sure.

Pekudei

The author hereinafter known as "P"
would set the Temple ritual in stone
asserting he's the sole authority
as if at Sinai, he'd been there alone.
But Torah texts preserve another voice;
our Patriarchs did sacrifice their way.
A Jew must endlessly confront this choice
if he reads ev'ry verse of Pekudei.
Nadav and Abihu ad lib their role
presuming Moshe'd set the precedent.
But cohanim are zealots for control,
insisting they know what God surely meant.
It's perilous for priests to innovate
if they don't wish to share the fatling's fate.