The laws of kohanim,
VaYikra,
Is the heart of the Torah.
The word korban means
To come close
By offering Hashem
Our animal souls
To channel lifeforce energies
To holiness
Through G-d’s decrees.
Writing “VaYikra,”
Moshe opposed,
Thought it showed
Hashem giving him
Too much kavod;
The smaller alef,
The compromise,
For Moshe was small
In his own eyes.
At the burning bush
He first heard
Hashem’s call;
Moshe thought himself unworthy,
Thought himself too small.
But when the need arose
To defend his flock,
He showed chutzpah and daring,
Pulling out all the stops.
David was just a shepherd
In the fields, on his own
He became the sweetest singer
Ever known.
Gave his flock tender care
Like no one else;
When beasts tried to kill his sheep,
He was a lion himself.
Goliath thought young David
A foolhardy knave
For G-d and Israel’s honor;
The boy stood proud and brave.
When crowned king,
Through the crowds
With his retinue,
David confessed to them:
I am as amazed as you!
Like the moon, both
Humble and majestic,
Man’s greatness
In this world, a cyclic dynamic
Broken and diminished;
Light concealed
Amongst the downcast,
G-d’s true greatness
Is revealed.
The alef is silent,
The spirit makes no sound
For, amongst the lowly
HaKadosh Baruch Hu is found.
Written backwards, alef
Spells “peleh” –
Wonder inexplicable,
Within all of existence
Hashem loves the humble.
Moshe Rabbeinu’s
Heart was broken;
He rejoiced in his mission,
But, by the same token,
In Moshe’s great humility
He believed another
Could have done
Better than him.
By Sharon Marcus