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Writer's pictureRabbi Alanna Sklover

The end is just the beginning...

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

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