Devarim, דְּבָרִים  "Words"  Deuteronomy. 1:1-3:22

Devarim / In The Beginning 5782

A poetic meditation on the parashat Devarim*

To the Children of Awakening Repentance,

to the Children of the Torah Audience, 

to the Children of Wilderness Redemption,

Moses will recite the Ten Mitzvot,

that Knesset Israel heard at the top of creation

Moshe will bless Israel with the blessing of his own soul

Through his blessing,

Israel, God's firstborn child, 

will multiply the very measure of creation, 

according to the personal blessing of Moshe

Moshe’s holy tongue,

a holy tongue of love 

and devotion for the people,

a tongue made for teaching the word of God,

will recite the Ten Imperatives of Life

to the children who face the River Jordan 

For the Torah was the inheritance

of these Children of Awakening Repentance

who wandered for forty years

and became the children 

of Wilderness Soul Repair

Ears up! Ears sharp,

children of Regenerative Repentance,

raised in the Wilderness of Redemption!

Moshe is about to sing from his songbook to you

Know that the rebels of imaginary

autonomous free will

require a worldview 

where morality appears by happen-chance

in cosmic pockets of mazel,

and only dark chance 

and violent coincidence 

write the laws of necessity 

The rebels of imaginary free will

were lost in the wilderness 

They waited for a second wind

but had no faith 

Individually, they gave up

But for Knesset Israel, set free by God,

there could be no despair 

And they received a second wind

The superstructure of creation is justice!

The deepest foundation of creation 

is just and righteous mercy!

Listen with humble awe

Moses will sing you a song

Moses will recite to you the Ten Imperatives

Moses will sing you a curative curse

Moses will sing you a beautifying blessing

You are traveling to eternal Jerusalem

You are traveling with the Sabbath map

You are crossing a narrow bridge

from this world to the world to come

You’re walking in the Shechinah’s hands

You’re crossing over on the Shechiah’s wings

Attune your ear to the majestic beat,

to the Torah’s rhythm of walking

Take counsel with its personal wisdom and understanding 

Place each foot with care and learning

You are here at the Gate of the Source of Opposites

across the Field from The Other Side

Moses will begin God’s epic story

Every generation attunes its ear and listens

Every generation hears anew

Gracious words of correction fall like manna

Rabbi Eliezer*rose up and spoke

The one who taught many teachers 

expressed his view

Then wisdom was understood

The world is a limited place, he said

The infinite Torah 

cannot be all contained 

within the world

Let us learn the Torah in the world

and the Torah Above the world

For the Torah overflows the world!

But Rabbi Yehoshua* rose up and answered him

And then wisdom was understood

We must learn for ourselves, he said

the ox in the ox’s style,

the lion in the lion’s style,

eagles in their style

Adam must learn as a child

Let the Torah first fill the earth,

and then it will overflow…

Moses heard both rabbis and deeply smiled

He was pleased,

for his song of rebuke

had taught them humility

In the knowledge of each,

and the wisdom of each

was the fear of their Loving Master

In the song of Moshe there is no flaw

All its corrections are blessing

It gave them confidence and clarity,

through the light

that shinned from Moshe’s face,

to walk in the spirit of repentance

How did Moshe’s melody have such power?

Moshe’s songbook made them know

that Israel is God’s sentence 

of just and righteous mercy 

passed for eternity upon Adam

Why, then, do the nations rage? 

Because they are still in the docks 

and have not yet heard 

the final judgment

From the day the Jewish children were born

they had confidence 

that the grace of the mitzvah

would teach them its mastery in the end

For it had given birth to them

and nursed them from the very beginning

of the root of time

Then the words of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai*

were remembered

And then wisdom was understood,

the wisdom of the forty years of love,

containing thousands of years of learning,

And those forty years seemed to Israel

like a journey of three days

Even the dust of the wilderness is redeemed 

and will be made to live through Israel 

For the little children of the Torah

will be like the sands of the seashore,

which cannot be measured or numbered

In the place of wandering in the desert,

on the other side of the Jordan,

it was said to them,

You are not wholly my people

In that very place 

of the Jordan’s parting waters,

they shall be called,

the children of the Living God!