5769

Moses says goodbye
Tells us to be strong and brave
G-d will not fail us

Worship idols? Cursed.
The people all say, “Amen”
Obey the laws? Blessed

If a son rebels
Breaking the fifth commandment
Parents should flog him

If that doesn’t work
Then they should ask their neighbors
To stone him to death

Idol worshippers?
Stone them to death – in public
Severe punishment

But this can happen
Only with testimony
From two witnesses

Another limit
Is that this only applies
In “the settlements”

[RJ.org comments]

Curses? Mount Ebal
The blessings? Mount Gerizim
A strange ritual

Ibn Ezra says
Mount Ebal is a scapegoat
Absorbing curses

This week’s haiku were inspired by the commentary of Rabbi Oren J. Hayon in the URJ’s Reform Voices of Torah, part of the wonderful Ten Minutes of Torah email project.

[RJ.org comments]

Moses announces
We’ll enter the land despite
Being so stubborn

It’s partly because
G-d promised our ancestors
That we’d have the land

Another reason?
Wickedness of the nations
We’ll be driving out

[RJ.org comments]

Moe recalls that G-d
Said “You won’t enter the land”
‘Cause of what he did

But in retelling
It becomes the peoples’ fault
Revisionism?

[RJ.org comments]

Nothing new this week
Moses reads diary of
Forty desert years

Of course, he recalls
The people’s lack of faith when
He sent out the spies

[RJ.org comments]