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Rabbi Hannah is on vacation this week, so as we count down the last week and change before Shavuot, our time to ascend that mountain and receive Torah all over again, enjoy three very different Shavuot poems, beginning with a classic:
We All Stood Together
By Merle Feld, for Rachel Adler
My brother and I were at Sinai
He kept a journal
of what he saw
of what he heard
of what it all meant to him
I wish I had such a record
of what happened to me there
It seems like every time I want to write
I can’t
I’m always holding a baby
one of my own
or one for a friend
always holding a baby
so my hands are never free
to write things down
And then
As time passes
The particulars
The hard data
The who what when where why
Slip away from me
And all I’m left with is
The feeling
But feelings are just sounds
The vowel barking of a mute
My brother is so sure of what he heard
After all he’s got a record of it
Consonant after consonant after consonant
If we remembered it together
We could recreate holy time
Sparks flying
Fifty Gates
By Rabbi James Stone Goodman
Was it a complete gift this wisdom or did we turn ourselves inside out and twist ourselves into a posture of acceptance some crazy yoga that we submitted to methodically and daily in order to gain the gift; here is your Wisdom, nicely packaged it’s now in Book form first it came as Thunder and Lightning but some time into the future after you are done with the Telling you will begin the Writing then it will be a Book then it will return to Lightning in digital form and you will return to Telling because the words are on the wind in the rain maybe once in a while you’ll project them on a wall or Write them in a journal to remind you that the Word has shape and also to remind you that the word does not have shape it has sound.
The return to Thunder.
Revealing Torah, Revealing Me: A Prayer for Shavuot
By Devon Spier
Before there was Torah
There was thunder.
Lightning.
The sound of a horn beating.
A mountain and smoke billowing.
People trembling.
The Word arose from sight and sound.
To receive Torah was a moment.
But what of the moment prior?
In which our senses and primal feelings
Called out to G-d above.
Wanting to stay at a distance
But remaining firmly in place.
As if to say:
"I'm scared."
"I'm ready."
Reveal Torah.
And, with your blessing,
Reveal me.
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