These are the parts of the Lulav and Etrog
we have held in our hands since we first
wandered the desert –
Lulav
How impressive you are, our spine, straight and bold.
Pain, heat, softness, even tickling – every one of our
physical feelings travels your distance.
Hadas
You are our eyes through which we see all
that there is to see. Beauty and ugliness
all captured by you. You remind us not to blink
or we might miss something important.
Aravah
Our lips through which anything we have to say
exits our body and travels into the ears of every
sacred human. May we choose those words
carefully. Once they leave our mouths
they are impossible to gather back.
Etrog
Not a lemon gone bad, but our heart through which
everything we experience is filtered. Our joy and sadness
and all the possibilities in between. The pitom, or stem,
first pointed down, then up because our hearts should be
open to all the ways.
All together, the parts of the Lulav and the etrog
make up a person and the ways in which
we receive the world, and it receives us.
We hold ourselves in our hands.
We shake ourselves in every direction
because whatever God is, God is in
every direction. We are there too.
We have always been there
immersed in the divine.
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
