Sep 30, 2021
Ve’zot HaBerakha
after forty years of shouting myself hoarse I’ll use my last breaths to bless you. oh Israel, I wrestled the angel to win your berakha. you can’t see my face but I can see yours, all upturned and regretful. know that I can give you all this; know this is all I can give you. I see your whole future and am frightened for you. I see your whole future and I love every ugly bit of you. I look God in the eyes and see all you can be in Their cool, measured stare. I wish you goodbye with a kiss.
#poem#poetry#torah#jumblr#parsha#Parshat HaShavuah#Poem HaShavuah#Ve'zot HaBerakha#last!#poem!!!#wild!#also wild: the fact that Moshe used his very last moments to bless B'nei Yisrael#he has spent so long having to fill the role of disciplinarian#I think about how perhaps they mourned Aaron longer because they had a more uncomplicatedly loving relationship with him#he was like the fun dad#he didn't have to be harsh#but Moshe takes these last moments to share his love#he WRESTLES THE ANGEL OF DEATH to carve out this time#if you can't tell I'm a bit obsessed with angel midrashim#there's the midrashim about how when God shows Moshe the land They show him everything that will ever happen to B'nei Yisrael#their entire future#I imagine how painful and joyous and overwhelming that could be#how he's unable to leave them in a way that is simple but he is able to leave them with his work and his wishes#think about how they haven't been able to look him in the face for forty years#but he's the only navi to have ever seen God panim-el-panim#and after decades of such tortuous complexity he gets to leave so simply#with a kiss
