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A Child’s Home
A Child’s Home
Poetic Notes On The Parashat Pinchas*
Pinchas turned my wrath away
from Israel gone astray
creating peace on the deadly day
My Covenant of Shalom
will forever be his home
Shock and awe become a gag of rage
Moses was made a mute hostage
along with Achdut Yisrael
For Balaam schemed its burial
Angels who spoke like brilliant stars
were left as speechless as Elazar
by the tsunami of antinomian zeal
to create a reality you could touch
but could not 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
that had slithered past the temple peg
when Pinchas' point killed the plague
when it cut through seduction like a knife
and justified the very core of life
The covering of mercy rests on the ark of justice
This is the covenant given to the soul of Pinchas
the covenant of peace
and of release
from the spell from hell
that sin is the sister of grace
This is no pride parade or glory race
There are black holes and many camps
Fires and floods and altar ramps
fence in the Holy Land
Don't come on the journey to the promised land
if you love the money and power brand
and want to build a life for yourself
For a little one will be the first to build the land
and the greatest will be the twelfth
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 Abraham
who was prepared to kill Isaac like a ram
At time's head and toe
it is through the sons of Isaac's bow
but in the middle at the heart
where hearing starts
where faith flows like waters
it is through the holy daughters
Plagued children cry, unfair, unjust
We should have been like stars and not like dust!
Let us see the good in correcting all depravity
From this we see with certainty
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 the Temple
Its mount is the fount of the world
Through the sacrifice of its altar God is known
He alone makes justice and mercy a child’s home
*Being a meditation on the Torah portion of Pinchas as discussed in the commentary of Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum. As well, insights from the essay, Achdut — Jewish Unity, by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz (עליו השלום) were incorporated. Insights were also included from the lesson entitled, Displaced, delivered by Rabbi Baitelman of ChaBaD Richmond, B.C., which is from the Rohr JLI series on the Rebbe's guidance and advice called, Inlook Outlook. Neither Rabbi Greenbaum, Rabbi Baitelman nor the JLI have reviewed or approved of the content of this post.
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