Bamidbar, בְּמִדְבַּר  "In the Wilderness".  Numbers. 1:1-4:20

How You Count

Poetic Notes on the Parashat Bamidbar* 

You count by helping others to count

This is the equation forming the foundation of the world

This is the equation commanded by God

Diamond souls, pressed and molded, formed in the desert,

Every one found and counted by God with joy

The facets of every diamond soul illuminating

the facets of every other

And all the diamond souls saying with one voice to God

We will obey upon hearing your will

We will learn by doing all that you command us

We will be counted as your children and your servants

The work of our hands will be established by your power

By your light shining through us 

we will shine as one diamond soul

The nation planted in Egypt

was cut out of a dying womb,

saved and claimed by the Divine Midwife’s hand,

drawn out through the wilderness,

brought through the waters,

endowed with the Torah of God

The Temple is carried on the back of little children

In place of the firstborn of Adam who perished in Egypt,

count the firstborn of Israel

If the firstborn of Israel are still in school

If they are busy with their lessons,

count in their stead the one month old Levites

The future of the Temple is on their shoulders

All Israel was rested on the shoulders

of the one month old Levite spiritual warriors

They carried worlds through the wilderness

Don’t load down their little arms with world war weapons

They have the Temple of God on their backs

Don’t make their ears heavy with political voices

They are like angels carrying the Throne of God

One month old Levites, doing the work of the firstborn,

are guarding the gates of Israel,

the inner gates and the outer gates

There is always a concealed remnant of the diamond soul,

with a concealed faith,

prisoners of hope,

representing the firstborn,

representing the corporate people

It is not religion that is the opiate of the people

It is the abuse of religion

I have always a concealed faith,

concealed in a remnant,

Hashem says to Elijah 

It is a holy whisper

It is the holy smoke ascending 

It is the triumph of the tallit’s prayer

Look! There even among the goyim

there is the quiet, concealed faith 

taking hold of the tzitzit of the Jew’s tallit,

saying, “Let us go with you

into Hashem’s Sabbath Land!”

Let us also be counted!

For we have heard the power of the holy whisper

We have heard the report 

of Yehoshua and Calev 

We have believed that God is with you

A diamond generation will carry Temple-Israel

through new birth waters,

through the Jordan river’s new waters,

through its mitzvot of promise

Many will irrigate the land with mitzvot,

but the harvest will be delayed another day

Melchizedek gave place with joy to Abraham

And his diamond soul was counted

Lot was lost and found in great tribulation

Consider the power of counting one

Asenath gave place with joy to Yocheved

In counting one she counted seventy

Rejoice with His people all you nations!

Draw me close behind you!

You whose covenant changes death into life

There is a way that seems right to humans,

but the end of it is only death

There is a way in the Torah of promise

that fashions diamond souls in a wilderness

It is the hand of the Divine Midwife

It is a Tree of Life bearing fruit,

a whisper of faith creating joy

Draw me close in behind you, my beloved!

We run to get near to you!

The King has secreted me in his chambers,

covered me with his holy lightning cloud

We will rejoice in the eye of the fiery storm,

because you are there

Adam looked for a partner, a bride

He looked into the place of emptiness, of loneliness

Was she concealed there?

Or was she concealed with God?

God turned Adam around

and Adam looked into the eyes of Eve

Mashiach looked for a partner, a bride

He looked into the word of God

He looked into the image of God

He looked into the depths of Adam and Eve

God turned Mashiach around

and he looked into the eyes of Torah-Israel

Jerusalem was kept hidden there,

that she might be prepared for her beloved

For Jerusalem’s sake Adam repented

and Eve gave birth under sentence of death to her children

We have traveled to the end of the north,

beyond the edge of the east

We have announced the ways of Hashem

along all the ways of the west,

traveled in his chariot to the ends of the south

In the wild-land synagogues at the world’s end,

we have learned that your love

is the wine of heaven

Your love is the whisper of faith,

the joy of Torah everlasting,

World without end, Amen

It is right that the children love you