Emor, אֱמֹר  "Speak!"  Leviticus 21:1-24:23

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.