Terumah, תְּרוּמָה "Donation" Exodus 25:1 -  27:19

An Offering 

Poetic notes on Parashat Terumah*

"Hope unfulfilled makes the heart grow weary and sick;

but when the desire is realized it is a tree of life!"  

from  The Book of Proverbs

Gold mined from life lessons learned

in the Greater Babylon prison camp

is the righteous gold of God’s people

Twelve precious gemstones were mined there

from the souls of the prisoners

with golden hearts every one,

with their lessons learned

The prisoners there, in truth, 

are only the prisoners of God

The guards of Babylon have no real power

Silver extracted there

from long Persian prison nights and years 

is the silver of corrections by Divine design

Greek prison copper mines mining truths 

from hard labour lessons, 

deeper than human thought,

are truths pounded into foundation braces 

for a holy nation

Planks of fragrant cedar

are logged for yeshivas of suffering;

These are logged from doing time in all nations

Iron ore turned into prayers of steel

forged from blood red souls in New Babylon,

souls with character crafted from mud in Egypt,

souls rebuilt as a shul, 

a shul of martyrs for God’s word,

to serve the mystery of God’s word

in its captivity in New Babylon

This is the shul built according 

to the anointing of David,

the grand conductor of prayer

Blood red souls harvested from New Babylon,

rebuilt as a House of Prayer for all peoples,

themselves forming

a house of healing and learning for creation's soul

She is a house with a Holy of Holies so sublime,

so sublime that the Spirit most Divine longs to dwell there,

to receive gifts of many mitzvot from the golden heart

She is a Temple with walls of the Torah’s glory

Her footings are on the battlefield of victory

in God’s war with Amalek

When she was raised high,

Amalek went underground

Now every individual soul is like a nation

“…you shall all know Me, 

from the least to the greatest”

Each holy soul battles the soul of Amalek

Each soul, like a nation, defeats the evil inclination

and seeks to establish peace all around,

like David the king did,

like David defeated Amalek,

so that Solomon could reign in peace

So long as HaShem grants me another moment, 

though I have failed the moment before, 

in that moment may I seek to do his will

This is the brit of Mashiach 

This is his covenant with the house of Israel 

HaShem’s people are his home,

a Temple with walls of eternal glory

Her footings on the battlefield of victory

in the war with Amalek

She is a house built to give eternal birth 

to earth and heaven,

Her offspring is a universe of kindness