Eikev, עֵקֶב  "As a Consequence"   Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25

Ekev / Resurrection Shema

Poetic Notes On The Parashat Ekev*

The mitzvot are made for the Land

and the Land for the mitzvot

These two were made to be one flesh

in the body of Israel

Mitzvot that can be carried out of the land

in brokenness and exile

can be carried back again into the Land

in repentance and rejoicing!

Bring all the mitzvot of God into the Land

to be celebrated on the Great Shavuot to come!

The calling of Abraham was the promise of the New Creation

The testimony of promise in which Isaac walked,

was the promise of the whole world’s redemption

The testimony that Jacob carried down into exile,

was the testimony that Abraham was called out

of the exile of Adam

Israel was called out of the prison of Adam

to a holy Land free of the guilt ofAdam

This is the testimony that Israel will bring back to the Land

In the beginning and in the end,

the Land of life and the mitzvot of life are one

Through the mitzvot of life 

the Land of life is planted

The Land of LIfe is planted and cultivated

with the seed of the Torah of Moshe and Mashiach

The whole Land will be grown into a Holy Garden,

a garden with both natural and spiritual fruit,

a fruit harvested in eternal peace with abundance

A child was born from the living beginning 

Hashem declared:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”

Hashem declared it and it was his mitzvah

And out of the living letters of Hashem’s declaration

Jerusalem was born as a child above and below,

to be raised in the court of God’s Sabbath,

as the bride to be of the world’s Redeemer

Because of her,

every child has the potential 

to become a vessel of regenerative life

Yet, without the new word of God calling Abraham 

out of the graveyard of the nations,

no child’s regenerative potential

could have ever renewed the soul of creation

A child is not born clothed,

with the exception of the foreskin…

Adam was not created clothed at all

They were nursed into existence like a newborn

They did not fear darkness,

neither physical nor spiritual darkness

And death was not deadly to them

Adam’s potential regenerative life force 

was their dominant trait,

until their temper failed them,

until the tempter came and assailed them

Naive children,

they dreamed of being superheroes

They allowed a molecule of anger,

and a cell of pride,

to corrupt their freedom from within

They dreamed of giving birth by themselves alone

to an eternal regenerative living soul

Out of rebellion’s anger

they constructed an artificial consciousness,

an intelligence designed on the logic of pride

And they conceived a plan

And they conceived in pain

And they gave birth in agony

They planned to be through their own wisdom 

the parents of eternal life to all creation

Instead, they brought shame upon their children 

and a need for covering themselves  

from the sight of all their children

Nakedness was covered in all the earth 

Nakedness brought suffering

Where it was uncovered, sin followed 

Then God circumcised Israel in Egypt

He brought the law of the organics of righteousness

out of the Garden of Eden

And he gave it to his nation of redeemed slaves

He planted his mitzvot in the Land of Abraham

He made his mitzvot to sprout like cedars of Lebanon

in the Land of Isaac

In the Land of Jacob the mitzvot of God

will bear eternal fruit

To the audience of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,

Moshe will sing with Mashiach

Then Adam’s stature will reach its full height 

The ears of man and woman will rest in hearing God’s song

This is your audience, Oh Israel

This is your inheritance

It is written in the last will and testament

of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob

Moses was made the executor

Moshe with Mashiach will speak together

To all Jacob’s tribes,

saying to the children of Israel,

God gave you manna

He gave you words from heaven as food

to sustain you in the desert

He gave you the mitzvot of His mouth,

to sustain you in the Land of plenty

Freely eat the milk and the honey

Freely eat from all the fruit of the Garden

These are the miracles and mercies of the Holy Land 

where faith is called from Above to be,

This is the Land of Jacob’s ladder,

where Abraham’s children go out from themselves

to enter a place of intimacy 

that only their Redeemer can show them

His word brings a hornet swarm against the enemy,

His word brings a plague of nature 

to drive them out the inhabitants of the land,

to remove all those who enter the conspiracy of sin

For Hashem stands in your midst

He saves you little by little,

lest the four beasts of this world come

and take the place of the Canaanite

Beware of the beast tattooed with sin

Beware of the daughters of Midian and Moab

if they return 

to lead you away captive

to the cave of four beasts tattooed with sin

For Hashem leads and guides you on a paved path

His Shechina paves the way for you into the Land,

that you might go there and eat of his mitzvot,

that you might elevate its wheat

barely, grapes and figs

pomegranates, olives and dates

into spiritual fruits

All and every mitzvah is yours

in all and every portion

They are a whole and perfect equipment,

a full and complete inheritance,

to cultivate a land with the spirit of regeneration

You have the power to transform time into Torah,

and an unholy world into a holy eternity

Follow Moshe and Mashiach

to the mezuzah on the door of heaven

Thieves and robbers turned over the earth like a field

looking for its treasures,

looking for the Jewish children who God redeemed

But they could not find them

For God hid them in the wilderness

Thinking the earth to be theirs,

Greeks and Romans,

Egyptians and Babylonians,

even men and women of far away lands,

turned themselves into idols

They did what was moral in their own eyes

They wove a web of artificial wisdom and ethics

and shaped the world in their image

The perfect expression of individuality

does not come from self-assertion,

from knowledge taken by force

Morality is learned from a truly living, organic nation,

a nation that is all in one and one in all,

which has God living in its soul

As the mother gives birth to the child

and it does not give birth to itself,

so it is with the poetry of Moshe,

which is sung as a song by Mashiach

It is a song of Israel, 

born in the mind of the Blessed Holy One

Israel shall come planting and being planted,

a holy seed of kindness and righteous compassion

The arrogant angel comes riding its horse

to capture the whole earth

and make Israel its prize

Hashem will hurl both horse and rider into the sea 

The sea of his forgetfulness shall drown them

Do not fear the arrogant ones

Come out of the exile of detention in correction,

of hard labor and despair

Do not touch the idol’s blood

Return to the home of the resurrection to come

To your credit, Israel, 

all the labor shall be accounted,

to you who resolved firmly,

to dig deeply and labor from the heart,

to complete the whole mitzvah of Abraham,

to elevate the Holy Land to its full measure,

to the measure with which Abraham measured it,

to be a light to the nations,

salvation to the ends of the world

What David began he leaves to his son to finish

What Moshe began his brothers and sisters now finish

Then the reward shall come

You will stand again with Joseph

You will recite the whole Shema with Ephraim

The Holy Doorpost of Jerusalem Above

will be all the doorposts of your heart and home

You will stand before the aron in the Presence of your God

All famine and exile will be forgotten at your gate

In the quorum of the resurrection

you will stand in your Land and sing and pray

I will sing with Israel,

for Hashem gave Israel to Adam as lips of praise

With these lips alone

Adam is made worthy to praise Hashem

Hashem is higher than all measures of human praise

Therefore  we praise him through his gift alone,

through the gift of Torah Israel,

Israel redeemed for the sake of thanksgiving and praise

Let all nations recite the psalms of David!

Let them recite all David’s psalms 

to the Blessed Holy One of Israel!

Let all nations sing with Israel!