Isaac and Rebekah – a poem

I wrote this poem a few years ago based on the story of Isaac as it appears in this week’s parasha. I read it again today and found it somehow comforting and hopeful in these days, and so I offer it again.

I wrote this poem a few years ago based on the story of Isaac as it appears in this week’s parasha. I read it again today and found it somehow comforting and hopeful in these days, and so I offer it again.

My father Abraham set out alone,
Leaving everything he knew,
seeking a better place
where he’d never been
because God promised him
a blessing and a future.

But my heart is broken.
I yearn for solace.
My mother is dead
because my father stole me away
before dawn
while she slept.

Her servants reported to her
that he placed me
upon the pyre
as a burnt offering
to his God.

But an angel saved me.

How she loved me,
filling me up
like a goblet
with laughter
and tears.

And now I am alone
amidst the wheat and rocks,
beneath the sun and stirred-up clouds
swirling above
like disturbed angels.

Can You hear me –
Merciless God?
Comfort me now
and bend Your word
that she may return
as we were.

Looking up
I see a camel caravan
and people walking
like small sticks in the sand.

There is my father’s servant Eliezer
and a young girl.

Lasuach basadeh –
I pray and weep
beneath the afternoon sun
and swirling clouds,
and angels singing.

Rebekah to Eliezer –
‘Who is that man
crying alone
in the field?’

‘He is my master Isaac,
your intended one,
whose seed you will carry
as God promised his father.’

Vatipol min hagamal –
“And she alighted from her camel”
and veiled herself
for a wedding.

I entered her
in my mother’s tent,
and she comforted me.

Thank You, God!