Torah is Nothing if it’s Not Ours (Shavuot Poem)

Torah is nothing if it’s not ours.

Given with the colors of the palette of gongs and chimes. Given through your body that knows not how to do anything other than become a shofar itself as far as your ears can see. (1)

Torah is nothing if it’s not ours.

Through the letter aleph (2), the letter behind the breath, the shapes being mathematical equations and heart hummings. We die because all beings are reverberating and breaking with each letter.

Torah is nothing if it’s not ours.

God knowing your own language— the intimacy heard beyond all worlds.

Here are some of the midrash and Torah referenced in this poem:

(1) At the giving of the Torah  in Exodus 20:15,  “The people saw the voice of the lightening and the voice of the shofar…”

(2) The midrash (stores about the Torah) says that the first letter of the 10 Commandments, the ALEPH, from the word אנכי/anochi/’I am’ was so overwhelming for the Israelites that many of them died (left their bodies.) ALEPH is even a silent letter!