Matot, מַּטּוֹת  "Tribes"  Numbers 30:2-32:42  /  Masei, מַסְעֵי   "Journeys"  Numbers 33:1-36:13

Chosen

Poetic notes on the double Torah Portion of Matot-Masei*

Forty-two journeys

Forty-two lessons learned,

like a forty-two letter name of G-d

Forty-two journeys from the Exodus to Today

Today, if you hear His Voice…

Forty-two journeys just to get to Jericho

The Jericho of more love

than man or woman know

Jericho across the Jordan in the chosen land

This is the way God loved the world,

He chose a home and its fields

in which to raise a chosen people,

to create a greater love

than man or woman know

Give neither glance nor ear

to the showy bully pulpit of sin

It will pull you in

to a gravity well of negativity

Meditate humbly on the lovely spirit

Mirror the lovely spirit in your other

This is the divine liberty 

given to you in God’s commandment

To give preference to your other

is the freedom of your choice

Give preference to yourself 

and your soul will lose its voice

Exodus set the tribes of Israel free

To live life conscientiously

At Mount Sinai, God told Moshe:

"Prepare for the third day"

It will carry you on the forty-two journeys

along your way

There is a way that seems right,

but it leads to the second way,

the way of death

Prepare on the third day for the third way

The way that changes death, reframes it into life

A life of perspective maintenance

(Maintain this perspective:

The serpent has no legs)

The Jew is a single entity, 

a wrapped up package of hope

Hope is somewhere in the cities of refuge,

three on the west bank and three on the east,

lacing together the world in one Israel,

one Jew, one hope

On the third day

Moshe received the third way

Walk with the tsitsit of Torah

through the standing waves

Neither death nor Jordan waters will defeat you

Come see the sounds and hear the sights!

Come enter the Land of Shavuot!

Every tribe of Israel is a keeper of prayer

Every tribe of the earth is put in their care

Each boundary they frame reveals God's name

Come into the grand city of refuge

Make peace with the avenger of blood

Vows and curses can be nullified

The High Priest who died can be justified

The spoils of Midian will be divided

Moshe’s anger has subsided

The dirt of death can be washed away

in East Promised Land,

at the heart of the chosen land

Behold the mission of creation:

Heaven and earth were made,

and their song was sorrow and darkness

They were not and then they were,

but they felt only tohu and bohu,

chaos, entropy and confusion,

and darkness at the navel of their belly

Yet a divine love voiced a whisper,

like the wind of a softly beating wing above still waters

God whispered to Moshe and said, “Look over Jordan!”

Cities of refuge here, and cities of refuge there!

Compassion is busy being born

It is never dying

Come Reuben, Gad and you half of Manasseh!

There is work for you to do!

Busy love tramples out the wine,

The wine of joy laces every soul together

Shall we do teshuvah?

Shall we dance teshuvah to the Lord?

Repentance shall fill the world with light

We will build twelve Temple gates of prayer,

while Edom builds its prisons of pride

Their mind ascends to the stars

God will blink his eye

and bring their thoughts down to earth

They claim to understand whatever they can measure

They understand time about as well 

as they understand love

And yet they confidently say in hearts and schools,

“There is no God”

Is this tolerable? It is intolerable 

And yet God is compassionate toward them until the end

In the end, out of compassion,

he is strict in timely judgment with them,

in order that they not be completely unprepared

for a new heaven and a new earth

For the Torah of Mashiach is soon coming, 

to be the first and only word of creation

This is the glory of his compassion,

the glorious brilliance of his justice,

the bright and living power of his mercy

With the Torah of his mouth,

God is creating from the chosen land of Israel 

the new heaven and new earth

And not one hair on one head in heaven or earth

will be found out of place

Bring your broken hearted and your shattered ones

Bring your children who were stolen

Bring your elders who were cast aside,

and your failed groom and your lonely bride

Come to the grand city of refuge,

built on the foundation of Aaron’s prayer

There is healing there

A guardian of hope will lead you there

A daughter of Zion will be your nurse

She will open the door of hope and blessing

and seal the door upon the curse

Only from there can you ever go home

Only from there 

can you be given your divine independence,

with forty-two lessons learned

Today, if you hear His voice