Shemot, שְׁמוֹת "Names" Exodus. 1:1 - 6:1

Moses and Elijah

Poetic notes on Shemot*

The arrow of time

is the arrow of redemption

The highest hight

is reached only from the grave

Elijah the prophet,

who reveals the perfect way,

will sit with those at the broken table

He lights the candle that turns the night

to meet the day

Who is the candle whom he will light?

It is the stranger in the strange land

It is Moses the stranger who said,

“Let my people go!”

Then they ascended to holy gates above

from the land of Osiris below

The gates of light themselves were blinding!

Their eyes had been enslaved in darkness,

how should they enter in?

Moses viewed the land from afar,

though the gate key was in his hand

The Torah key that eluded Adam

“Holy, Holy, Holy,” the fiery voices sang!

The key holders shrank back,

but never turned away and ran

The sceptre shall not depart from Judah,

nor the children of the Torah from his feet

Mashiach will come;

all the children will gather to him

in Jerusalem

For Elijah will mend the broken table,

and he will nurse the weeping eye,

when the child has mastered the lesson

G-d will remove the very spirit of evil

from Mashiach’s land

*Being a meditation on a Torah class on parashah Shemot, delivered by Rabbi Baitelman of ChaBaD Richmond, B.C., based on the series, Torah Studies, by Rohr Jewish Learning Institute. Neither Rabbi Baitelman nor the JLI have reviewed or approved of the content of this post.