I'm honored to have the piece below accompany the last installation of the Parsha Poster project from the artist Hillel Smith. See it here.
We take the role of God
for Parshat VaYelech
i
The people must gather
every fifty years—
the men, the women, the babies.
They gather to hear the king
read the Teaching,
the words of holiness.
ii
God made the Heavens and the Earth and all that is in them
beginning with the words: Let there be Light
and finishing with the words: Let us make Man.
God announced to the world to exist
and the world hearkened,
came to be.
*
The king—
a lone man—
announces the words of holiness
and all of the people gather to hear him,
to be filled with the words,
to be created as a people,
to be created as a world.
iii
See how it is a lone person’s role
to reenact Creation,
to create a world with the word of God.
A community is the universe he creates.
_________
Shabbat Shalom,
Abe
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