Written by Emily Stern 2010
after visiting Nishmat, a prospective Torah learning environment.
In Honor of Rebbe Akiva and the Concept of
ריבה ומיעט וריבה
Master of This one verse.
Who can create anything
my arms are raised to you.
my eyes being remade…
There’s a mountain out of a mole hill here. (I’m at a construction site.)
In Armaic, ari means argue, to make a case. and in other times, I hear Lion. It is only because of positivity.
Will you make the world big enough for you.
This vessel
just make the world big enough for you.
Avram is promised what he doesn’t want to lose, says Rashi, a name that could have been great,
where there was nothing to lose,
i always thought why those things?
We are able to join you. Come, I am listening in perfection.
I joked that a good name of a drag queen would be Mechitzah.
Master of Return,
Master of making marks, and raising them, of rearranging.
of cats cleaving.
of cats leaping from dumpsters.
I break all bonds, politely, in the way you have been asked to be in this world
and the case
and how silly you are in my heart.
you are her name. Straying path after path.
lifting like a shovel any judgment i ever used to separate me.
I am a cloud, a clown.
