Thursday, January 2, 2020

Approach - a poem for parashat Vayigash

This is God's doing:
I knew it all along:
Divine intervention on a biblical scale -
someone should contact DeMille,
te absolvo to the rest of you;

You clearly had no part
in the glory-bound trainwreck
that was the beginning
of this merry-go-round life,
all murderous contempt aside.
You have no power here,
nor your little dog
or your sparkly red shoes.

Clearly it was God all along

So you may approach, knees bent,
tail between your legs,
and make as your offering gift
the  blood - spattered remnants of cloth of gold
and red and orange and purple and black -
You get the picture -
I get the glory.

Blessed is God,
and deserving of blessing.
Amen


1 comment:

Betsy Fuchs said...

I did a dvar on Vayigash and your poem about it while great fun seemed so different from my take on the parasha which was that it was "man's doing" not God's. That is the way it is with we Jews who read and study and talk endlessly about these old stories and find different meanings, every year, every person, always. Hooray for God and our traditions to hold onto these stories so rich with humanity, drama and meaning.