for Parshat B'Haalotcha
i
The cloud of God rests upon the Tent of God.
The people encamp around the Tent, around the cloud.
When the cloud lifts up, the people follow it.
They follow the cloud until it rests down to the ground again,
and the people reunite with it again.
ii
The cloud rests and rises up,
rests and rises up,
throughout the forty years in the Desert.
And the people follow the cloud all the way to the Land.
iii
The people do not come to the Land by encamping steadily around the cloud.
They do not come to the Land by resting steadily with God.
They come to the Land in the continual process
of being apart from God’s cloud
and reuniting with it,
of parting and reuniting,
over and over for forty years.
In this cycle, they arrive.
*
They come to the Land in the continual process
of being apart from God
and reuniting with Him,
of parting from Him and reuniting,
over and over for forty years.
In this cycle, they arrive.
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Shabbat Shalom,
Abe
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Numbers 9:15-23
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