Nice Jewish Boys Moving and Storage – A poem for Parsha Bamidbar

The following is the service of the clan of Kehat in transporting the Tent of Meeting: they will carry the holiest of the holy furnishings. ~ Bamidbar 4:4

And thus Nice Jewish Boys Moving and Storage
was first established at the foot of the mountain
before we started on our forty-year walk

to the place where most of our feet that
had touched Egyptian soil would fade into
dust before reaching.

I’d like to tell you who was in charge
of putting the poles in their place, but
perhaps you should do your own research.

What with all the packing and okay I’ll
just tell you, it was Aaron and his sons
who had to be careful to also not touch

the sacred objects lest they die, which is
exactly the warning I gave to the movers when
we moved to this house which they

seemed to appreciate because they were
nice Jewish boys and had read this section
of the Torah before they legally incorporated.

You can learn how to do anything today
by looking in the Torah for the instructions,
especially if you need to wrap your showbread

which I promise you is not a metaphor.
Anyway, pack it up, Shlomo. But make it
easy to find as we’re going to be

setting up shop all over the desert
for the next few decades as we move out
putting one slow foot in front of the other.

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