Ki Tisa, כִּי תִשָּׂא. "When You Count" Exodus 30:11-34:35

The Coin  ✨

Poetic notes on parashat Ki Tisa* 

The Holy Coin of the redeemed…

The true Israelite coin is a coin redeemed by measure

Its value is in the eye of the beholder

Who is the evaluator of the true Israelite coin?

What do I see?

Half of me is the other

Build the Future Tabernacle

Build it only with the Wise-hearted

Assemble together with those who understand when today is tomorrow

Keep company with those who know eternal life at its very conception

Prepare to assist the Divine Midwife 

as she brings out the eternal body at its birth

Build the Tabernacle of Moshiach

Understand that Hashem’s victory for tomorrow is today

However long it takes us to awaken,

we will come to know that Hashem has won

He has won his war with Amalek,

and therefore he will battle the one he defeated,

until that defeated one is no more

Hashem has won in order for us to enslave the evil inclination

and make it serve the good today,

for the sake of the world’s eternal tomorrow

There was a time when

we were deceived by Foolish Gold, the sinner’s gold,

The only hope was the Ten Words of forgiveness,

upon which the world was founded

The world was a wilderness of waste and decomposition

a world lacking faith, exiling itself from God,

a world of exile in corruption

But within the wilderness were wandering sparks,

half-sparks to which Hashem laid claim,

speaking upon them his name

Ten words were spoken in forgiveness to Israel,

words to kindle the fires of holiness

to allow them to obey for today

and to learn for tomorrow

This is our only way; there is no other day

Let us honor the foundation of mercy upon which our creation rests

It is when we obey to hear ten words today

that they become thirteen Words of mercy for eternity

Then we remember that creation will be born tomorrow

that we all, as one Adam, are one tabernacle,

We will emerge from this womb in time to learn and know Hashem

These thirteen words of mercy are ten words for time

and three words for the eternity to come

All of them are words of light shining through to destroy darkness,

shining through the radiant veil of Moshe,

becoming the Companion to David’s anointing

Elijah drew near and spoke

and the people did not answer him a word

Elijah drew near, calling for the testimony

of two faithful witnesses,

two bulls to answer to Elijah's call,

one to recognize the sentence of justice

and the other to pray for humble, graceful repentance

The truth on the altar,

like a slowly building, climbing fire, becoming faith,

becoming a flame that will consume the very imagination of sin

Foxes of the heap of Temple stones

will become foxes of the forest of Lebanon

on the day they count the holy coin of the Israelites

that makes half of me the other

Read the story,  The Coin