Mishpatim — laws (Exodus 21:1–24:18)
I live in a nation of laws
but the laws seem to change
with the flick of a tweet.
It may soon be illegal to
write poems in tercets.
I’m ready to turn myself in.
The ancient text, the ideals
of which lived in the hearts of
the authors of my nation of laws
say not to harass the foreigner.
Can you imagine the ancient
auditing these ordinances.
You’re not doing it right
they’d say and probably add in
an observation about how
there seems to be a lot of
people eating meat with dairy.
This is where my vegetarianism
comes in handy. I wonder how
they’d feel when they learned
some of the mistreated aren’t
foreigners at all. There are no
illegals on stolen land they
shouted from the big stage.
Do any of you vet these things
they’d shout from the past
and most of us would cheer yeah
but then another tweet would come
and the ancient would be arrested.
This is what it’s like in my
nation of laws today. I pray
the pen is mightier than the tweet.
I pray for the ancient to be proud.
Rick Lupert, a poet, songleader and graphic designer, is the author of 29 books including “God Wrestler: A Poem for Every Torah Portion.” Visit him at www.JewishPoetry.net
