Vezot Hab’rachah — And this is the blessing (Deuteronomy 33:1–34:2)
My son turned eighteen yesterday.
And so, like all the parents before me
I must give him blessings.
I am the Moses of this story. Maybe
without so much wisdom, but
just enough.
In the blink of an eye (relative to the
passage of time – did you know millions
of years ago, you could walk to Australia?
The span of all human history could fit
forty thousand times since then. So when
I say in the blink of an eye, trust me.)
In the blink of an eye I will go up a mountain
and never come down. I hope, unlike Moses,
they will keep track of where they put me.
I’d like to think, before another eye blinks,
someone will put a sunflower on that spot
and maybe remember a single word
I put on a page. That, for me, would
be the blessing. A blessing like my son
turning eighteen. A blessing like
the words I’m trying to communicate to him
like Moses did to the descendants of Jacob.
Like the Author(s?) of the Torah did for us.
This scroll, we rewind every year and start again,
whose words never change because
it’s us who change. As the wind blows
as we become dust, as supercontinents
continue to drift, imperceptible to our eyes.
This passage of time. These blinks of our eyes.
We are the blessing.
Rick Lupert, a poet, songleader and graphic designer, is the author of 30 books including “Begin the Beget” and “God Wrestler: A Poem for Every Torah Portion.” Visit him at www.JewishPoetry.net
