TorahParsha

The Tower of Babel

for Parshat Noach

 

i

God creates each thing with words:

He says, Let there be;

He names:

Day, Night, Sky, Land, Seas.

*

The Man is alone

so God makes each creature

and places each creature

before the Man

for the Man to name.

This is the way

God guides the Man to his wife,

the woman,

whom the Man names also.

 

ii

In Babel

the people

all share

one language.

They say:

Let us make a great city

and a great tower;

let us make a name for ourselves.

*

God is not pleased

and He sows discord in their language

and He spreads them out

across the earth.

 

iii

God utters Creation though words

Man comes to Woman with words,

with names.

But the people of Babel

wish to make a name for themselves.

*

There are words

that reach out

from the speaker

to a world,

from one

lonely being

to another.

Other words

are the way

we babble

about

ourselves.

Only one of these types

of speaking

does God

want.

 

 

______

Shabbat shalom,

Abe

 

Please pray for for Ayelet Yakira bat Chaya Hinda Matel Nechama

 

www.TorahParsha.com / @TorahParsha

What is the ideal of a holy life?

for Parshat V'Zot HaBracha

   

i

God says to Moses:

Come up,

see the Land from afar,

from up on this mountain.

Then you will die.

For you will not enter the Land

because you did not sanctify Me

at the Waters of Strife.

*

God says:

Joshua will bring the people

to the Land.

Joshua:

whom you have covered with your hands.

 

ii

To be up on a mountain with God

is special treatment.

But it is also a punishment

to be held on the mountain

and kept from the Land

and kept from the people

who will enter the Land.

*

It is Joshua

who will carry Moses’ holiness

down from Moses

and down from Moses’ hands

and into the Land

and into the world

and on to the people.

It is Joshua

who merits to live

this kind of holy life:

not to be the holiest man on the mountain

but to be the man who brings holiness down

to share it.

 

iii

This story

of Joshua’s holy life

is the story the Torah closes with.

Of all the stories,

that is the story we keep with us.

 

 

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Although note Moses’ death, and burial in a valley Deut. 34 5 - 6

 

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 Thank you for spending another year of Torah with me.

Thanks especially to my wife Kathi—for her help in these thoughts, and for everything.

 

___

Please pray for for Ayelet Yakira bat Chaya Hinda Matel Nechama

www.TorahParsha.com / @TorahParsha

 

 

Booklet for Sukkot 5772

 

As I've done for Yom Kippur, I've collected my thoughts on Sukkot from over the years and included them in a booklet--you can view it here. I hope you enjoy, and please share.

Chag sameach,

Abe

Please pray for for Ayelet Yakira bat Chaya Hinda Matel Nechama

www.TorahParsha.com / @TorahParsha

 

Booklet for Yom Kippur, 5772

Friends,

As I have done in years past, I'm sharing a booklet of pieces I've written throughout the last few years that relate to Yom Kippur. View the booklet here.

May HaShem inscribe us all in the book of life and happiness.

Gmar Chatima tova,

Abe

 

Please pray for for Ayelet Yakira bat Chaya Hinda Matel Nechama 

TorahParsha.com