Emor / Sabbath Home
Sabbath Home
Poetic notes on Parashat Emor*
To be homeless
Or not to be homeless
Here is the most
Heartfelt question
No homeless person
Is without a home
They have lost it
And search for it
And no one
Is without Shabbat
Though the world has lost it
And searches for it
Still Shabbat has been kept
And is the world’s home
Shabbat has been kept
By Israel
As a home for the lost world
Kept in the heart of suffering
In the place of concealment
And in a face of kindness
And gentle revelation
Kept in the secret
Of Israel’s scattered unity
From one soulful week
To the next
A bright and shining secret
The hidden Jewish soul
The Sabbath soul
Of luminous love
And radiant joy
The hand of Israel
In the hand of God
Giving and receiving
The gift for the whole universe
The gift of home
To a homeless world
*Being a meditation on a Torah class on parashah Emor 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.