Spoken Word from Show 

So this is what it means to be a Jew, who knew!? 
Who knew that Judaism was ancient and yet progressive
mystical, intellectual and impressive
grounded yet elevating - paradoxical and penetrating.

Suddenly I am plumbing depths and thumbing through texts
that have been thumbed and plumbed
for generations past and more to come.

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.

Coming 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.
 
Committed to something more than a Manhattan latte 
and  pumped-up pay-check to provide for the family 
that might smile wide for the camera 
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.

And so I pace myself 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
I will come to know so well.

With a fire hotter than a 1000 degrees
from the cool Ivy League
my ivy climbs the Western Wall
- a beanstalk tall to which I cleave.

I have returned to these streets
to breathe these books
to dream these dreams.
If Torah is a tree of life 
then I will gladly change my life, 
that I may sit among her leaves and read... 

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