Beshalach, בְּשַׁלַּח. "When He Sent Out"  Exodus 13:17 - 17:16

Running And Returning

Poetic Notes on Parashat Beshalach*

There is a city square

in Jerusalem’s air, so fair

where the four corners of creation meet together

The four corners are encircled there

Listen to the word of God and hear

the encircling square of Sabbath ringing

and the steps of Elisha's horse resounding

Elisha ben Abuya was the teacher of the great Rabbi Meir

This Elisha became an apostate 

Apostate though he was,

for the sake of the great Rabbi Meir his student,  

once when he was mounted with his student walking

on the Sabbath Day,

he counted the steps of his horse 

so that Rabbi Meir not go outside the techumª of the Sabbath

Apostate Elisha counted and measured the Sabbath techumª 

Elisha himself was measured least among the sages

To Rabbi Meir’s heart he was equal to the greatest

Once, long before, the children of Israel also measured

They measured the manna

those who only gathered little had as much 

as all the fruit of the Garden of Eden

The Sabbath techumª is like a chariot coming to rest

Her stretching wings now folding,

Her holy angels running and returning,

Her arms under you, gathering you in

If we receive the Bread of Heaven 

and do not reach for the manna in the tree of tomorrow,

we will find the door into HaShem’s Sabbath, 

to rest with the Sabbath Herself, 

in God’s Living Room

where God unwraps each and every day

as though it were the world’s first

When the Seventh Day and Her techumª are one,

when they align like a wing and its wind,

then you don’t go out from her

and you don’t send her out

This time you don’t send her away

Look! The sabbath is above

See! Her techumª is descending

Resting on the desert camp below

Your hope is filled with joy

Your feet dance with grace and peace

Inside Sabbath time your steps rest

Like little children you sit down with the Torah

and learn how to be a Godly mystery

Why would you wander?

Where is she coming from,

this Sabbath Queen? 

Where is Her place in the universe?

Where are Her limits drawn for Her decent 

upon the wandering womb of Jerusalem?

Moses knows

His trust in HaShem is only trust

No alien hope can approach it or enter in

In the company of the Sabbath Queen

Let your dreams be modest

Do not dishonor her personal boundaries

Rest with her awhile in the desert

Soon you must forever

settle with her in cities

How does the Sabbath leave the wilderness?

How does the Sabbath enter the Land?

The faithful students of Moses know

How long until the land is Sabbath?

Already the once and future Sabbath fills creation

like a mother’s hand rests upon and fills with love

her sleeping child

There is no Sabbath but Israel's Sabbath

The Sabbath of the desert

has now settled upon the city

This is the great and beautiful promise of Jerusalem

When you wake up and walk and won’t take a step

across the Sabbath boundaries of the city

it is because she is there resting in that city

The Sabbath has moved in

On those days that you do step out

and go to work

she still is there with her techumª  concealed

Sufficient for every day of the week 

is the promise of the Sabbath

The Sabbath is the Beloved of every day of the week 

and they clean themselves up 

and dress themselves the best that they can 

in the hope of seeing her

All guests are dressed for the Banquet

All preparations have been made

No labor has been spared

The blessings are set on the Table without cost 

and without the first or the last deserving even

to smell their fragrance

These guests are your weekdays 

upon which you journey out

like one who goes backwards in time

You go back into the week

She accompanies you to the gate

She waits for you there to return to her

For you will come back to her 

when your days are numbered

All have laboured and prepared,

and yet all were in the dark

Not one soul expected the glory of the Table

You descend into Egypt

and then come back to her

to the Sabbath Garden

And HaShem Elohim said to the Adam,

of all the trees of the Garden you may freely eat…

For the seeds of all the fruit

of all the trees of the Garden 

were Israel’s manna,

the food of Israel’s ultimate Sabbath

With Moses, seal the waters of the se

Use the staff of the Sabbath ways

Find faith in Moses

Seal the profane beneath the waters

Seal the armies of Pharaoh 

within the red seas of blood in your veins

and seal your faith in HaShem above the waters

There is no ascent

Without there being first a decent

This is the covenant

Cross the narrow bridge

Gather in and prepare the Sabbath blessing

The Camp of the Sabbath is living in God’s covenant

Her wings rested over those who returned

Her manna in the wilderness

tasted to them like cream

She moved to rest upon the settlers

How superior is the taste of the word of God to the soul

over the taste of the rewards of the labours of the field

Now she rests

On the settlements of the exiled

On day six, or day one, or in between

You may be driven out from her,

but the way to the Sabbath of the eighth day

The only way

Is to return again to her on the seventh day

To keep your rendezvous with her

Well inside the Settlement of the Seventh Day

Then from there go forward,

without ever leaving her again

The wings of her tecumª will infinitely spread

While the prayers of the righteous bring rain,

the love of HaShem for Israel and His world, 

which no thought has conceived 

and no heart has imagined, 

brings the dew from the ground 

that brings the manna of HaShem’s Sabbath rest

Nimrod was an ox

an incorrigible goring ox

Abraham disowned any part in him

He would not take Nimrod with him

to God’s Land

In this way Abraham helped Shem

to put his house in order

This is the order of Melekizedek

The time to which Israel hinted

to the nations is come

For how long did Israel hint

that there is no way to life

except through the seventh day?

What gaze is not off limits on the Sabbath?

The gaze looking in faith beyond the night, 

to that hour of the Sabbath light

That light is the eve of the eighth day

At that time the glory of the nations

will come to her in a flowing stream

From one Sabbath to another

From Adam’s Sabbath they departed

To Israel’s Sabbath they will return

With a heavy hand the nations ran

They ran the Israelites to the ends of the earth

and would not let them go,

to keep the Sabbath with their God

With lightened hands

they will return the children of Israel

They will carry them as royal children 

to Jerusalem's Sabbath rest

There within the eternal Sabbath boundaries,

under the wings of the Sabbath techumª,

all the earth will worship Adonai

All creation will walk

through the Sabbath doors

and sing prayers of praise to beautiful Israel's 

Holy and Blessed God

For on the day of work

God has healed us eye to eye

and on the Sabbath he will heal us face to face

ªtechum shabbat (Hebrew: תחום שבת, "Shabbat limit"), or simply techum, is a limited physical area in which a Jew is permitted to walk on foot on Shabbat and Jewish holidays.