Forgive me for two posts in one day. I am attempting to continue to write poetry about the parshiyot. Last week and this week in both Parshat Lech Lecha and Parshat Vayera we talk about covenant. I wasn't really sure what covenant meant. It is the bottom line of Judaism; our covenant with God which is at the base of the special relationship between the Jewish people and God. The covenant is the core of our many responsibilities of Jews. Beginning with circumcision and working its way into the Mitzvot and a way which Jews approach the world.
Despite being the bedrock of Jewish identity, it is difficult to understand what covenant is. At once it is the most basic premise of our relationship with God; on the other had, like all law it is complex and has been endlessly interpreted.
I've struggled with putting into words; any words, the idea of covenant. There is so much weight, so much history and even tragedy in these words. So many have sacrificed their lives for the sake of this covenant. On the other hand, where would we be without this covenant with God? Where would our Sabbath be, our principles, our ideals, our liturgy, our community and the countless ideas that our people have contributed to the world?
Please accept this short poem as a small attempt to put into words that agreement forged between God and Abraham, between God and you and me.
I am most intrigued by this verse from Genesis as the Brit is enacted so on this verse I base my poem.
וַיְהִ֤י הַשֶּׁ֙מֶשׁ֙ בָּ֔אָה וַעֲלָטָ֖ה הָיָ֑ה וְהִנֵּ֨ה תַנּ֤וּר עָשָׁן֙ וְלַפִּ֣יד אֵ֔שׁ אֲשֶׁ֣ר עָבַ֔ר בֵּ֖ין הַגְּזָרִ֥ים הָאֵֽלֶּה׃
When the sun set and it was very dark, there appeared a smoking oven, and a flaming torch which passed between those pieces. Genesis 15:17 (From Sefaria)
I will most likely go back and tinker with this poem, as I am so uncertain as to its meaning.
To you, my few readers, I ask what your idea is about covenant. How do you picture it in words? In art? In how you live your life? In your family's history?
Covenant
The furnace of covenant
weighs heavy on us
pulls us upward
our feet dragging
our hands reaching
This covenant
demands from us
This thing
This nameless agreement
Burned
between us and a Power
Forged in fire
between us and history
Created
Partners eternal
God and the Jews
The Jews and God
Energy pulling us
soaring us
toward an idea
Words
of fire and ice
Words
lit like hot embers
Do, pursue
forever chasing
Justice
Conscience
pointing at us
branding us
for all time
We are known
as the people
of the Covenant
Together we are
a universe of ideas
A web of fine print
across time and space
Always burning hot
Sweet smoke rises
Energies merging
synergy
binds us
cuts us
eternally
humbly
fantastically
words written in fire
Part 2
Covenant
Covenant
we live for
we die for
our children learn
as they nurse from mother's breasts
as they walk with their fathers
as they see the light of the candles
as they march for social justice
as they close their eyes
whispering Shema Yisrael
they join
a line of ancestors
saying those words
