Simchat TorahThe holiday at the end of Sukkot during which Jews dance with the Torah late into the night. The yearly reading cycle of the Torah is completed and a new cycle is begun. Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah mark the end of the holiday season. In some congregations, the Torah scroll is unrolled in its entirety, and selected verses are read or sections noted.
It is too soon
To give up on this notion of death
Now that there is to be rejoicing.
TorahThe Five Books of Moses, and the foundation of all of Jewish life and lore. The Torah is considered the heart and soul of the Jewish people, and study of the Torah is a high mitzvah. The Torah itself a scroll that is hand lettered on parchment, elaborately dressed and decorated, and stored in a decorative ark. It is chanted aloud on Mondays, Thursdays, and Shabbat, according to a yearly cycle. Sometimes "Torah" is used as a colloquial term for Jewish learning and narrative in general. speaks to that.
Before his death,
In reminder to all the people,
By strong hand
And awesome power,
MosheThe quintessential Jewish leader who spoke face to face with God, unlike any other prophet, and who freed the people from Egypt, led them through the desert for forty years, and received the Torah on Mt. Sinai. His Hebrew name is Moshe. had shattered the tablets.
Before breath
Completes its cycle,
We read,
Out from the silence of Aleph,
And from all around,
Emunah ushers in
A new creation;
Something never before imagined.
We have been gifted
Vision to see through illusion.
Time is a construct;
Material an artifice;
Impermanence an absolute.
My life,
A flower rising through fecund mycelium
Of time and space.
This poem,
A flower whose life is less than a day,
Also has her moment, and her place.
Take heart
Oh, Lamed,
Final letter of Torah
Through your expiration
Bet is eager to exhale
Her newest creation.
Who are we to imagine
Worlds upon worlds?
Our task is to breathe,
And then,
To not.
