God said to Abraham, “Regarding Sarai, your wife — you must not call her anymore by the name Sarai, meaning ‘my princess,’ for Sarah, meaning ‘princess’ in general, is her name. ~ Genesis 17:15
I remember at camp, at the end of every meal
we would sing Birkat Hamazon to indicate we had eaten,
we were satisfied, and we were grateful.
The melody ended with a long run of la la las
which we would extend by shouting queries
to the leader like what do horses eat?
They’d answer hay and we would treat that
as an invitation for several more minutes of la la las.
This practice was tradition, like pointing out
the dining room windows to the ocean below
and shouting look, a whale! There never was a whale
but this is how we extended meal times
beyond their natural boundaries.
When Sarai, which means my princess,
got a Hebrew letter hey in her name
she became Sarah, which simply means princess.
No longer possessed, she stood with her own power,
ninety years old and about to get news
that would make her laugh.
The hey came from God’s name Who
also gave one to Abram making him Abraham.
Father of multitudes instead of just exalted father.
God never ran out of heys to give but records indicate
Abraham and Sarah were the only ones to get one.
Until I remembered back to the dining hall at camp
when we teens, full with challah and chicken
seemed to have an unlimited supply.
The holiness given to Abram and Sarai
was passed down to all of us. Let it always be
the first letter that comes out of our mouths.
la, la la, la la, la la la la la la…
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
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