Passing Through – A poem for Parsha Chukat

“Let us pass through your land. We will not venture into fields or vineyards or drink well-water. We will walk along the king’s road until we have passed through your territory.” ~ Numbers 21:22

We’ve been passing through lands lately
without asking permission.

Close to forty years into this walk
and we’re leaving the place a mess.

Or was that last week or the week before?
It’s hard to tell the difference between

this ancient text and CNN.
Maybe the Torah is being televised.

The great mystery of It being given
in its entirety before we experienced

all of it – solved. Everything is possible
with today’s technology.

We can televise things.
We can blow things up.

We can record it all so
fifty-seven hundred years in the future

someone can parse its lines for
the sake of art…for the sake of

wondering what it all means
as we teach it to our children.

Rick Lupert, a poet, songleader and graphic designer, is the author of 29 books including “God Wrestler: A Poem for Every Torah Portion.” Visit him at www.JewishPoetry.net