Thirsty Jewish Heart – a poem for Parsha Chukat

From there to the well; that is the well of which the Lord said to Moses, ‘Gather the people, and I will give them water.’” Then Israel sang this song: “’Ascend, O well,’ sing to it! ~ Numbers 21:16-17

The story says on our way to the promised land
before we got to the well, mountains moved together
to crush enemies waiting to shoot their arrows
into our Jewish hearts.

This is just a story. It doesn’t mean it didn’t happen
it just wasn’t written down, like later when there was
a situation with a small amount of oil and a week’s
worth of time. And now we fry potatoes whenever we can.

We learned of this miracle, as was passed on with
spoken words, and not documented in the original text,
when we saw the blood of our crushed enemies and
we knew what had happened.

We also were thirsty and the water sprang up
and we sang to it. Thousands of years later and I
have yet to sing a song to the purified water that
comes out of my kitchen spigot.

Maybe we should all be singing songs to
our beverages as these are the gifts of our time.
I sing a song to the water people, the princes and
nobles who solved the hard water crisis of my time.

We are a book and a half away from crossing
the final river. All these years later, so many arrows
are still pointed in our direction. I’m turning on the faucet
hoping to wash them away from my thirsty Jewish heart.

Rick Lupert, a poet, songleader and graphic designer, is the author of 28 books including “God Wrestler: A Poem for Every Torah Portion.” Find him online at www.JewishPoetry.net