We're Still Standing

Parshat Vayelech finds Moshe completing the writing of a Sefer Torah. On the final day of his life he transfers leadership to Joshua. The community is ordered to hear the entire Torah read to them once every seven years.

When reading this parsha, it is clear that Moshe is concerned on the day of his death, that the Hebrews will stray. What did he see during these last hours of his life? Could he even imagine the future and what it would hold for this people? In this poem I have brought Moshe to the present. What would he see?

I wrote this and posted a few years ago, in 2022, before the events of 10/7/2023 and the war began. I read it now and wonder how the words have settled over the events of the past few years. My eyes read the text, but they linger over the last few lines where I wrote that we are a stubborn group. Oh, how stubborn we are and must be. Oh, how wary and perhaps I would have added, oh, how weary, but that would not be consistent with the final message, which is we are still standing. Just last week we read in Parshat Netzavim how the community stood, every person then and now, and yes, we are indeed standing tall still. The message remains strong; Moshe Rabeinu, look at us from the past and see we are still here.

Ribbonu Shel Ha'olam, the Master of the Universe, look down upon us and help us continue to stand strong, to stand proud.

Grant us the ability to ask the right questions, to find the right answers.

Grant us the ability to see and to hear more completely.

Grant us a degree of understanding in this confusing world.

Grant us good health and good tidings, B"H.

Grant us peace.

Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom on this Shabbat Shuva and a G'mar Tov.

Leann

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If You Could See Us Now

Moshe,

If you could see us now as you speak,

as you read the law.

So many years later

to be a Jew is sometimes to be bold,

yet sometimes it is to be afraid.

Two sides of the coin

flipped again and again.

To be Jew is not taking for granted

that you will

be as numerous as grains of sand

or stars in the sky.

It is to be forever cautious.

Yet, to be a Jew is to affirm.

Moshe,

to be a Jew now is to see,

to be

women on the bimah

studying, teaching

and leading the way?

Moshe you would see

that there is much to disagree about,

but so much more that binds us.

You would see to be a Jew is to do something good,

to be fair

and to call that action

a mitzvah;

an obligation

that has been imprinted in your head

through your heart.

To be a Jew is to hear the sound of a breaking glass at a wedding

and hear history crunching in your ears.

To be a Jew is learning from teachers on a page that spans millennia and continents.

It is arguing,

defending,

It is affirming.

It is innovating old customs to make them ready for our time.

It is looking forward while carrying history in your suitcase.

To be a Jew is to slowly embrace change.

To be a Jew is to see the possibilities.

To be a Jew is to be an optimist.

To be a Jew is to defy the odds.

To be a Jew is to wake up in the State of Israel,

a miracle in this long stream of sand

falling through the hourglass of time.

It is to pinch yourself that you are living

in the midst of a long awaited

shehecheyanu blessing.

Moshe, if you could see us now.

Children at summer camps, school

singing at the top of their lungs

in Hebrew.

Hearing Hebrew, a language that is not dead

and not forgotten.

Not forgotten.

Moshe, you would be so proud.

As you read the law to the people,

as Ezra read the Torah to those Jews who had returned from Galut,

you saw the failures,

but you hoped for the chain to continue,

and so onward we go,

Shabbat to Shabbat

year after year

century after century

we arrive until now,

to this day

to this hour

here we are, Moshe.

She'hecheynu, V'kiy'imanu V'higiaun La'Zman Hazeh.

We stand before you;

still a stubborn group,

still cantankerous,

but we are so much more than that.

Can you see that, Moshe?

So, Moshe, our leader,

you can close your eyes

because we are still here.

We are still standing.

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הַקְהֵ֣ל אֶת־הָעָ֗ם הָֽאֲנָשִׁ֤ים וְהַנָּשִׁים֙ וְהַטַּ֔ף וְגֵרְךָ֖ אֲשֶׁ֣ר בִּשְׁעָרֶ֑יךָ לְמַ֨עַן יִשְׁמְע֜וּ וּלְמַ֣עַן יִלְמְד֗וּ וְיָֽרְאוּ֙ אֶת־יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶ֔ם וְשָׁמְר֣וּ לַעֲשׂ֔וֹת אֶת־כּל־דִּבְרֵ֖י הַתּוֹרָ֥ה הַזֹּֽאת׃

Gather the people—men, women, children, and the strangers in your communities—that they may hear and so learn to revere your God יהוה and to observe faithfully every word of this Teaching.

Deuteronomy 31:12

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The entire people assembled as one man in the square before the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the scroll of the Teaching of Moses with which the LORD had charged Israel.

On the first day of the seventh month, Ezra the priest brought the Teaching before the congregation, men and women and all who could listen with understanding.

He read from it, facing the square before the Water Gate, from the first light until midday, to the men and the women and those who could understand; the ears of all the people were given to the scroll of the Teaching.

Nechemia 8:1

Translation from Sefaria

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Image from Wix images

הָעָ֗ם