Pekudei, פְקוּדֵי   Accountings   Exodus 38:21-40:38

Mashiach's Beard

Poetic notes on parashat Pekudei (5782)*

Mashiach wears the children of Israel on his chest

He holds them close like a mother her infants,

like twelve ornamental stones against his heart

Two braids of gold

bring the children of Israel an anointing,

an anointing flowing from the beard of Mashiach

Encircling and enfolding all the children as one 

are two ever circling rings of gold,

circling and measuring and setting in stone,

like two heartfelt tablets of Torah on Mashiach’s chest

Circling rings, straightening the spine of faith,

like Moses did,

and raising the eyes  of the children of Israel to Hashem,

even toward the sky-blue wool of heaven!

May the Moses of the generation immerse us in hope! 

As it is written, I will lift up my eyes to the hills…

These are the hills with the stony heart waiting to be made soft

At first the heart of the hills was stony, 

because these hills drove away the children of Israel

From their holy sides

they made the children tumble down to Babylon

Thus, the hills of Judah became hills with a stony heart,

a heart so broken and stretched and distorted

that no one could recognize it

They could not find it any longer

Who could find the heartless body to be kosher?

The nations round about you,

oh hills of Judah,

lusted to see you possessed

and occupied by other nations,

they joked and gossiped about you

in every language of the earth

But none of them could grasp or hold you

They could not win a heart that could not be found

For it was stretched out, oh Mashiach, to your children,

to the furthest edges of the ledges of the earth

The heart of the Holy Land was stretched out into all lands

It pulsed in secret with quiet pulses in the most concealed secret

God alone heard its beating like a sobbing for its cast out children

From whence comes my help?

My help comes from Hashem, the Maker of heaven and earth

You will give the hills of Judah a heart of flesh,

even the Mishkan that was buried in the most concealed light

Hashem will touch Judah’s heart again

Heart to heart they will embrace,

Judah and the hills of Judah will soon embrace and dance!

They will form one heart,

a new heart of flesh, a new Temple, a new Jerusalem!

The nations will come cringing to you,

Oh Mount Zion, hoping to find a place in your heart

A thread of blue-violet ties Mashiach to the jewels on his chest

The Eternal Prince of Judah and the children of Israel

are always together, God knows

Heart to heart their blue tzitzit thread ties together heaven and earth

Bells are ringing with the sound of the beauty that is coming

Gentle waves of salvation sounding out of Zion surround the world,

announcing Mashiach’s arrival

These are the sounds of a cohen’s garment’s ringing,

that only the children of Israel can hear

Their hearts race quietly, anticipating the moment

when all the nations will hear his voice roar

Thus was finished all the construction of the Holy Dwelling

This is the Holy Body of Appointment,

a testimony of God’s name given for the correction of Adam

This is the completed House of the heart of Israel’s love

for the Eternal One, the Holy One blessed be he

The Children of Israel made it

exactly as Hashem had commanded Moses

They made it exactly according to the Torah of Moses

You shall take the anointing oil and anoint the Tabernacle

and all that is in it, to consecrate it

and all its furnishings,

so that it shall be holy

Take the anointing oil of heaven

and anoint the Body of Israel

Anoint the Assembly of eternal redemption

Let the gold of the eternal light run down Mashiach’s beard

onto the Jewish people and upon all who gather to them

Like a mother bird feeds her chicks,

let the light of Divine Presence feed

the crowding young chicks of the bird’s nest

They set an enclosure around the nation of Israel

And they put up a screen of God’s concealment

and the nations were able to enter only by invitation

They could stay by means of legal adoption,

and there was joy among the nations

Pray that it should rain!

For the draught is hard and bitter in all the earth

Pray that the anointing oil of heaven rains from 

the beard of Mashiach upon the Body of Israel

He drew a circle

The circle began to orbit itself,

joining each and every prayer with every other prayer

“I will not move from here 

until You have mercy on your children!”

Rain began to drip down...

Rain began to barrel down...

Then rain began to flow evenly like tides of the sea upon Israel,

with the streamlets of heaven’s eternal life,

and the four winds carried the overflow to the nations

“The whole earth shall be filled with the knowledge of Hashem

like the waters fill the seas”

When we say to our Creator,

“This is not what I asked for,” what did we ask for? 

Do we know truly what we asked for?

How should Israel enter the Land of Rest?

The Land anointed with the dew of heaven?

Israel’s Father knows

He knows the true answer,

the best answer of kindness

The Anointed Prince of the Jews knows how to pray for this

What if Israel had entered the land in faith with Moses?

“Cause the scion of David, your servant, 

to speedily flourish…

We hope for Your salvation all the day.

How much longer?”

Israel is your child, indulge her behaviour!

And raise her to the age of her beauty

Oh God, Father of Israel,

We only exist to you

Why then should we pray

that you indulge us like a little child?

Nevertheless, indulge us and gently correct us

Hear our prayer

Let your rain fall gently and firmly

Because we exist only to You, therefore we exist

Let your Spirit go with us 

as we walk out of the wilderness of the night 

and enter the Land of the Day