This week's Torah Portion, V'zot Habracha, is the final Torah portion in the final book of the Torah. But there is something unusual about this parsha, it is seldom read on its own. We chant the final verses of V'zot Habracha back-to-back with the first verses of B'reisheet. As I thought about this annual ritual of ending and beginning in the same moment, a very particular image came to mind - that of a Mobius Strip.
And so, as we enter into this Shabbat that bridgesinto #SimhatTorah, I offer as a kavanah (intention) a poem by Rabbi Rachel Barenblat, who also picks up on this metaphor for Torah:
MOBIUS (V'ZOT HA-BRAKHA)
I want to write the Torah
on a mobius strip of parchment
so that the very last lines
(never again will there arise,
arpeggio of signs and wonders
stout strength and subtle teaching)
would lead seamlessly to
the beginning of heavens
and earth, the waters
all wild and waste, and God
hovering over the face of creation
like a mother bird.
This is the strong sinew
that stitches our years together:
that we never have to bear
the heartbreak of the story ending
each year the words are the same
but something in us is different
on a mobius strip of parchment
I want to write the Torah