Pinchas, פִּינְחָס  "Phineas"  Numbers 25:10-30:1

A Child’s Home

Poetic Notes On The Parashat Pinchas*

Pinchas turned my wrath away,

away from Israel gone far astray,

Pinchas created peace on the deadly day

To the Land of Israel, God now is come to stay

My Covenant of Shalom

will be forever dear Jacob’s home

Shock and awe to gag the hostage

Moshe’s throat was mute with rage

Choked was the throat of Achdut Yisrael

For Balaam schemed its burial

Angels who spoke like brilliant stars

were left as speechless as Elazar

The churning waves of antinomian zeal

bring something you can touch but can never feel

The very covenant of day and night,

the very secret of wrong and right,

was at the point of Pinchas' stake

Jacob’s heel was bruised but crushed the snake

The snake had slithered past the Temple peg

when Pinchas' point killed the plague

It cut through seduction like a knife

and justified the very core of life

Mercy rests on the Ark of Justice

This is the covenant with the soul of Pinchas

This is the covenant of peace

and the bond of eternal release

from Bilaam’s spell 

born in hell,

the lie that sin is the sister of grace

This is no pride parade or glory race

There are black holes and many camps,

many fires and floods and altar ramps

The fences of God surround the Holy Land

Don't come on the journey of the Promised Band

without knowing that the greatest will be the twelfth,

simply wanting to build a life for yourself,

only loving the money and power brand

A little child will be the first to build the Lasting Land

Who will ascend the Holy Hill

Who will know and do the Holy Will?

In the Holiest Place, who will stand

How do I know I will inherit the land?

asked humble Abraham

Who is prepared to kill Isaac like the ram?

At time's head and toe,

it is through the sons of Isaac's bow

that God redeems his claim from long ago

and all his children come to know

But in the middle, at the heart,

where all the hearing starts,

where simple faith flows like water,

it is through the soul of the holy daughter

Plagued children cry, Unfair!  Unjust!

We should have been like stars and not like dust!

Let us see the good correcting all depravity

From this we will see with certain clarity

that Israel’s reason for existence is solely

to be holy

Moses stood on the Mountain Above,

where the Holy Land looks like a dove

He laid his hands gently on a servant

Armies tried to steal his wisdom but couldn’t

The soul of time is Temple Three

Its mount is the fount of the world tree

Through the sacrifice of its altar God is known

He makes justice and mercy a child’s home

Reference:  Habakkuk 3  a poetic reading

God of Israel, The Name, 

hearing You, I have been made able to hear

I have feared with awe the power of Your miraculous works!

Bring Your creative works to bear on life 

Here and now in these years make them known! 

In Your justified rage remember compassion...

The Divine Judge is come 

His Divine Holiness has appeared, 

having left the Edomite south, 

having come away from the mountain of Paran 

The heavens are concealed,

hidden behind the brilliance of His glory!

The Promised Land is overflowing with His praise!

Brilliant bursts of light were spiralling out in rays,

extending in cones from His hands all about Him, 

revealing His fearsome, glorious strength!

Epidemics flow out in waves before Him,

and plagues follow at His heels!

He comes to a stop after striding through history 

and the measure of the trembling earth 

is taken before Him

His eyes lock on the nations 

The nations tremble uncontrollably

The primordial mountains of the earth 

shatter and are left in splinters

The hills of eternity are his devoted retinue  

The paths of eternity that they follow belong to Him

I see the Ethiopians under an iniquitous affliction

and the Midianites,  the south of Jordan and Sudan, along with them

Did Your heat burn against the rivers,

did Your fierce anger pour out against the rivers,

did Your rage boil over against the oceans?

— when Your horses raced in,

drawing Your Chariot of Salvation!

Removing the cover, You uncovered Your bow!

You unsheathed as Your arrows the Tribes of Your Oath!

A whisper: Stop and breathe…

You made rivers wedges to split the earth

The mountain roots are writhing in Your presence

The storming skies weep with overflowing water

The gravity of the voice of the deep reverberates

The hands of the universe are lifted up in prayer

The sun and the moon stood naked in the clearing

Your bright shafts of truth shooting lightning bolts of halacha,

Your brilliant spear of judgment arresting all

With furious indignation You strode through the earth

Vehemently, You threshed the nations like grain!

Your compassion was fierce for the salvation of Your people!

In rescuing your Anointed from death,

You overturned and crushed creation

The head of the house of the wicked

lays naked from thigh to neck upon the ground

Stop now to take a deep breath!

Your arrows of true judgment

pierced through the chief head of rebellion

A whirlwind of redemption

scattered as dust those whose joy

was to feast in private upon the poor and needy

You made pathways of redemption upon the seas,

Your chariot horses, a divine tsunami upon the waters

I hear this and my sinews tremble!

The truth of this revelation makes my lips ceaselessly quiver

and rings continuously inside my bones

My heart and mind are seized

How can I speak? I will wait in silence

for this great day of revelation to come down upon those

who lust to kidnap and consume my people

Though the fig tree does not blossom,

and though there is no harvest from the vine,

and though the olives are dry and have no oil,

though the fields have turned into a wasteland,

though the young are lost from the scattered flock,

and there are no gatherings in the shelters,

I will rejoice always in Israel’s God

I will tremble with deep joy in the God of my salvation!

The God of Israel is my strength

He makes my feet swift,

like the feet of the young deer,

bounding across the hills to do His will

Let this song be in the hand of the choirmaster

Let it be accompanied by a melody played upon stringed instruments

— from the Rosh Hashana prayers

“And so, L-rd our G-d, 

instil fear of You upon all that You have made, 

and dread of You upon all that You have created; 

and then all works will be in awe of You, 

all the created beings will prostrate themselves before You, 

and they will all form a single band

 to carry out Your will with a perfect heart.”