It’s not going to be easy crossing that river
and the rule book keeps getting longer
and we’re going to have to climb mountains
and shout everything we’ve done good and bad
and if that’s not enough, there’s going to be labor,
stones to carve and coat with lime, when we’d
all rather use the lime to coat our mojito glasses,
and we’re going to have to bring our first fruits
to the Temple so the priests have fruits, when
we’d much rather eat our first fruits that we
planted and grew with our own free hands
and the first Temple isn’t going to build itself
and we’ll have to slaughter peace offerings
and wonder how the words slaughter and
peace ever got to be in the same sentence,
did they meet at an interfaith event and
hit it off, and there’s a commitment here
because we were chosen, and we agreed
to choose, and if we’re thinking of running
away at the altar, or the river, there’s a long
list of curses for that, I mean anything you
might do that slightly strays from the pack
and there’s a curse for that, and a curse for
this, and consequences, we really get into
the consequences so unless you want your
children to be captives, and cicadas to eat
everything you grow, and to never drink wine
and to have your corpse eaten by birds,
you’d better consider walking the difficult
path, the righteous path, the path cross the
river, the path up whichever mountain your
tribe has been assigned to go up, and build
the altar, and bring the fruits, and be a standup
guy, or standup girl if that’s how ya go, because
now we have the heart to know what is right
is right, and we have the eyes to see we did
the right thing leaving the narrow place, and
we have the ears to hear the melodies of
freedom we’ve been hearing for forty years
while we’ve worn the same shirt and shoes
every day, that whole time, and they have
never worn out, and still smell as fresh as
they did they day we got them from the store,
and I’m not sure we even had stores back
in Egypt, and maybe after we set up the Holy
Temple, and get all squared away with the
distribution of our first fruits, we can build a
shopping center, nothing big, just a mini mall,
or maybe even a strip mall with two or three
stores, because we deserve it and by God,
and I really mean, by God, it’s a miracle!
Let’s Bring Our First Fruits to the Mini-Mall – a poem for Parsha Ki Tavo
Editor's Picks
What Ever Happened to the LA Times?
Dan Schnur
Who Are the Jews On Joe Biden’s Cabinet?
Ryan Torok
No Labels: The Group Fighting for the Political Center
Larry Greenfield
Latest Articles
Performative Actions Must Stop
Samuel J. Abrams
Change Is Good – A poem for Parsha Tzav
Rick Lupert
A Bisl Torah – Hope Revealed
Rabbi Nicole Guzik
The Unraveling of Candace Owens
Orit Arfa
Longing for Shushan after October Seventh
Gershon Hepner
A Moment in Time: “Thinking Outside of the Box”
Rabbi Zach Shapiro
Culture
A Love Letter to ‘The Jewish Holiday Table’
Debra L. Eckerling
Moroccan Fish: A Taste of Casablanca for Passover
Sharon Gomperts and Rachel Emquies Sheff
Katie Workman: The Mom 100, Comfort Food and Ground Turkey Tacos
Debra L. Eckerling
Print Issue: Got College? | Mar 29, 2024
March 28, 2024
With the alarming rise in antisemitism across many college campuses, choosing where to apply has become more complicated for Jewish high school seniors. Some are even looking at Israel.
Rabbis of LA | Grief Helped Pave a Career Highway for Rabbi Anne Brener
March 28, 2024
Her father died when she was an infant; when she was 23, her mother and 18-year-old sister died three months apart.
New York Jewish Couple Redefines Kosher Wine Market
March 28, 2024
“We want Jews to stop drinking terrible wines or good wines that are overpriced. They don’t need to compromise anymore.”
Campus Watch March 28, 2024
March 28, 2024
A roundup of incidents, good and bad, happening on school campuses.
Hollywood
Podcasts
Katie Workman: The Mom 100, Comfort Food and Ground Turkey Tacos
Debra L. Eckerling
Jamie Pachino: “So Help Me Todd,” Food on TV and Chocolate Chip Cake
Debra L. Eckerling