Begin the Beget
Chazak Chazak Project Book I: A Poem for Every Aliyah of the Book of Genesis in the Torah
Ain’t Got No Press / August 2026 / Paperback / Ebook / 170 Pages
Begin the Beget opens The Chazak Chazak Project, a five-book series offering one original poem for every aliyah in the Torah, following the annual reading cycle from Genesis through Deuteronomy. This volume takes on the book of Genesis – Creation, Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and his sons, the whole tangled beginning of a people’s story – with humor, irreverence, and unexpected tenderness.
“Rick Lupert started the whole thing. Without him, there’s no Abraham, no Sarah, no Moses (spoiler alert, he’s a pretty big deal in the next volume). In Begin the Beget, Rick brings wit, nerve, and genuine theological depth to the Genesis of our people’s story. It’s commentary that argues, grieves, laughs, and refuses to let the text stay ancient. I read it every year. Behind Addie is a good place to be. Behind this book is where Torah really cooks.” ~ Cantor Ross Wolman
Poems from Begin the Beget
A Tale of Apples and Death
But of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat of it, for on the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die. (Genesis 2:17)
Knowing how much I know,
I wonder how it is I am still alive.
Fruit from the tree of knowledge is
literally on my dinner plate every day.
(The original sin is that no one uses
the word literally correctly.)
Further, I tempt the very life that
was breathed into my nostrils, weekdays
at one o’clock p.m. by putting an
apple on my lunch plate.
I cut it around the core into four slices,
and then toss its heart into the disposal.
Perhaps, this is how I get away with it
as knowledge grinds away and
the city takes care of it.
Sometimes the apples are mushy
and it’s more of a death than lunch.
That feels like an exaggeration but
considering what we all know
and that no one has found the remains
of the intersection of the rivers that
flowed out of the garden, maybe
all of this is suspect.
I know as sure as bees live in
the palm trees that surround my house
that I will surely die. I hope it’s not soon,
but when it all comes down, let my
epitaph read He knew too much.
Am I?
Am I My Brother’s keeper? (Genesis 4:9)
Am I supposed to admit what I did?
Am I responsible if no one saw?
Am I really starting this whole book over?
Am I canceled?
Am I in trouble for reading brother when
sisters hadn’t been invented when this was written?
Am I wearing the right clothes
for wandering the earth forever?
Am I touching the right keys?
Am I singing the right note?
Am I prepared for the forthcoming
crimes of our first family?
Am I the one who has to bear
responsibility for what they did?
Am I wasting electricity? How about water?
Am I too angry when I’m put on hold?
Am I the one with the taste
of the forbidden fruit on my tongue?
Am I making a fruit salad
with forbidden fruit?
Am I responsible for feeding
forbidden fruit salad to others?
Am I keeping my brother
longer than he wants?
Am I supposed to set him free?
Am I doing enough to make sure
everyone is free?
Am I?
Read more of my Jewish poems at JewishPoetry.net
