Zum Gala Gala
We wives bless you, Rabbis made new
to paskin good halacha
ancient yet progressive
erudite and impressive
grounded yet elevating
paradoxical and penetrating
With passion & compassion
cuz its all about the interaction
between you and the text
and the person who’s askin’
For this training ground
has been holy ground
where you have plumbed the depths
and thumbed through texts
that have been thumbed and plumbed
for generations past and more to come
And you, the latest links in this gilded chain
just to think of the honorable parade of names
that have passed this way and paved this way
to become rabbis and leaders of the jewish pack and pray
with humility and hutzpa
with whirled payes and knit keepas
with gartles and linens
from Babylon to Uman
Lithuania to Great Britian
And NOW to these courtyards of holy Yerushalayim
filled with Torah wisdom and higher vision
living the return of Judah’s long lost children
so far gone, so far hidden
now come home to the old books
of OUR own venerable tradition
Come home to the beit midrash
on Rehov Beer Sheva
to hutzot Yerushalayim
to Nachlaot, to Bat Ayin
crawling on berkayim
just to kiss these stones
and make a home
in Jerusalem’s now-revived old bones
You, gentlemen, have come streaming
like four cornered gleanings
clamoring with higher calling
cleaving to deeper meaning
shining with persistence
and a 3000 year-old commitment
Commitment to the Torah
to something more
than the mores & norms of the Western world
with her hordes of the immoral and the impure
Cmmitted to something more
than a Manhattan latte
and a pumped-up paycheck
to ”provide for the family”
that may smile wide for the cameras
but weeps inside, for their bankrupt neshamas
famished for a richer truth
than the loose change of material gain
famished for the fresh fruit of the living tree
stamped with God’s name
You men who have been
shocked by the Shach
and tazed by the Taz
you shimmer and shake
as you articulate G!d’s laws
You cite the Ramak
but then take a pause
just to check in with your own gut
as to the truth of the cause
And then review the case
with compassion
and pace yourself
with the stealth
of a leopard on the chase
of the truth
which darts like a gazelle
through these hills of Yehuda
and tomes of Gemara
you have grown to know so well
With a fire hotter than a 1000degrees
from the cool ivy league
your ivy climbs the Western Wall
- a beanstalk tall to which you cleave
A live tree of Torah, ketuvim, neviim
You’re a member of the band
belting songs of the Leviim
you have returned to these streets
to breathe these books
to dream these dreams
Aseh lecha rav v’kaneh lecha haver
make of YourSelf a rav - you did it, you’re there!
Now, gentlemen, look around you
- and now look within
for in this quest of your rabbanit
you have acquired these friends
So let us rejoice in this Smicha hag
Zum gala gala
for You we applaud!
- Chaya Lester, Rosh Hodesh Heshvan 5771
We wives bless you, Rabbis made new
to paskin good halacha
ancient yet progressive
erudite and impressive
grounded yet elevating
paradoxical and penetrating
With passion & compassion
cuz its all about the interaction
between you and the text
and the person who’s askin’
For this training ground
has been holy ground
where you have plumbed the depths
and thumbed through texts
that have been thumbed and plumbed
for generations past and more to come
And you, the latest links in this gilded chain
just to think of the honorable parade of names
that have passed this way and paved this way
to become rabbis and leaders of the jewish pack and pray
with humility and hutzpa
with whirled payes and knit keepas
with gartles and linens
from Babylon to Uman
Lithuania to Great Britian
And NOW to these courtyards of holy Yerushalayim
filled with Torah wisdom and higher vision
living the return of Judah’s long lost children
so far gone, so far hidden
now come home to the old books
of OUR own venerable tradition
Come home to the beit midrash
on Rehov Beer Sheva
to hutzot Yerushalayim
to Nachlaot, to Bat Ayin
crawling on berkayim
just to kiss these stones
and make a home
in Jerusalem’s now-revived old bones
You, gentlemen, have come streaming
like four cornered gleanings
clamoring with higher calling
cleaving to deeper meaning
shining with persistence
and a 3000 year-old commitment
Commitment to the Torah
to something more
than the mores & norms of the Western world
with her hordes of the immoral and the impure
Cmmitted to something more
than a Manhattan latte
and a pumped-up paycheck
to ”provide for the family”
that may smile wide for the cameras
but weeps inside, for their bankrupt neshamas
famished for a richer truth
than the loose change of material gain
famished for the fresh fruit of the living tree
stamped with God’s name
You men who have been
shocked by the Shach
and tazed by the Taz
you shimmer and shake
as you articulate G!d’s laws
You cite the Ramak
but then take a pause
just to check in with your own gut
as to the truth of the cause
And then review the case
with compassion
and pace yourself
with the stealth
of a leopard on the chase
of the truth
which darts like a gazelle
through these hills of Yehuda
and tomes of Gemara
you have grown to know so well
With a fire hotter than a 1000degrees
from the cool ivy league
your ivy climbs the Western Wall
- a beanstalk tall to which you cleave
A live tree of Torah, ketuvim, neviim
You’re a member of the band
belting songs of the Leviim
you have returned to these streets
to breathe these books
to dream these dreams
Aseh lecha rav v’kaneh lecha haver
make of YourSelf a rav - you did it, you’re there!
Now, gentlemen, look around you
- and now look within
for in this quest of your rabbanit
you have acquired these friends
So let us rejoice in this Smicha hag
Zum gala gala
for You we applaud!
- Chaya Lester, Rosh Hodesh Heshvan 5771
RSS Feed
