Give Until They Ask You to Stop – Vayakhel-Pekudei (Aliyah 2)

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Then Moses wrote this Torah

Can you imagine a time where so much had been given
all the needy organizations stopped asking for more?

They put out a call for people to stop giving?
No more room on the food bank shelves.

Empty beds for the homeless as far as the eye could see.
Everyone in Africa saying “no, thanks, I’m full.”

Even the lobbyist organizations had completed their tasks.
No-one cutting down the trees to rally against.

People forgot skin color, and religion, and the
concept of the other. All anyone saw was fellow human.

This is what it was like when God put an artist in charge.
The community gave so much they had to be asked

to stop giving. The best of everything was on hand.
They thought they were making something holy

but their generosity was what made it holy.
This was the briefest glimpse at the world yet to come.

A world we can barely imagine.
A world we have the tiniest spark of when

we drop a can of food in a barrel.
A world that starts to come into focus when

we funnel bits of our income to those who have nothing.
Let’s give until they ask us to stop.

Let that be the world we live in.

These poems are offered free for your enjoyment. If you use them as part of an event, meeting, educational or liturgical setting, please consider tipping the author.

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