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

Devarim / In The Beginning

A poetic meditation on the parashat Devarim*

To the Children of Repentance

the Children of the Torah Hearers

the Children of Wilderness Repentance

Moses  will recite the Ten Mitzvot

that the Torah Hearers heard

A holy tongue of love for its nation

will recite  the Ten Imperatives of Life

For the Torah was the inheritance 

of the Children of Repentance

who wandered for forty years

Ears up! Ears sharp!

Children of Repentance

raised in the Wilderness of Repentance

Moses will sing you a song

Moses will recite you Ten Imperatives

Moses will sing you a curse

Moses will sing you a blessing

You’re walking on the Shekinah’s back

You’re crossing over on Shekinah wings

Attune your ear

To the Torah’s ways of walking

Take counsel with wisdom and understand

Place your feet with care

At the Gate of the Source of Opposites

in the Field of The Other Side

Moses will begin his epic story

Every generation attunes its ear and listens

Every generation hears

Gracious words of correction fall like manna

Rabbi Eliezer*rose up and spoke

And then wisdom was understood

The world is a limited place

The infinite Torah cannot be

all contained within it

Let us learn the Torah Above

that overflows the world!

But Rabbi Yehoshua* rose up and spoke

And then wisdom was understood

We must learn for ourselves

The ox in his style

The lion in her 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 them both and smiled

For his song of rebuke

had taught them humility 

and fear of their Loving Master

so that his song of blessing had no flaw

no insincerity or other agenda

like the blessing of Balaam

It gave them confidence

to walk in repentance 

from the day they were born

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 in the beginning

Then the words of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai*

were remembered

And then wisdom was understood

The wisdom of the forty years of love

And they seemed to Israel

like a journey of three days

*Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua - See BT Bava Metzi’a, 59B

*Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai - See BT Menachot, 65A-B

*Being poetic notes on a Torah class on parashah Devarim 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.