Behar / From The Mountain
From The Mountain
Poetic notes on parashat Behar*
Adam
Where are you?
Cursed is the ground on account of you
Yet a time of hope is coming
when the land of a holy people will rest
in the seventh year
And in the fiftieth year the land will sing
when the holy people from the mountain of G-d
come of age
and the branches of the tree
are heavy with fruit
Do not pick the unripe fruit
nor confuse the shell with the nut
Though the day is small and dark
It shall become great
The sun and stars will fade in the light
of the day that is the culmination of Sabbath years
In the evening of the last year
logic will stand like a prosecutor
against the holy people from the mountain
How far you have fallen!
How you have been trampled in the street!
How will you lead the world to freedom?
Yet in that very hour of the final year
the fruit shall ripen on the vine!
On that day G-d will raise up the holy ones
and they will live in His sight
Joseph made slaves be slaves
In order to set them free
The nations have been bought and sold
In the liberty of the Jews they will be liberated
G-d will be known in His Land
He will anoint His people with His revelation
The Land of Israel will become heaven
The dead in the Land will be the living
And the living from elsewhere will be the dead
until the flood of the knowledge of G-d
fills the earth as the waters fill the seas
Then all divisions shall vanish
And all envy and anger shall cease
Redeem the Israelites, therefore!
Let brother redeem brother
And sister redeem sister
And stranger redeem stranger
For G-d has said
The Israelites are Mine
who I have redeemed and brought out of Egypt!
And make no longer idols for yourselves
upon the face of the earth
And dream no more the dream
of the fallen angels
For the Sabbaths of G-d will be yours
and His Sanctuary a place for you to live!
*Being a meditation on the commentary by the Kehot Chumash on parashah Behar, as well as on a Torah class on parashot Behar/Bechutokai delivered by Rabbi Baitelman of ChaBaD Richmond, B.C., based on the series, Torah Studies, by Rohr Jewish Learning Institute. Neither Rabbi Baitelman nor the JLI have reviewed or approved of the content of this post.