vayishlach

His brother Esau's inarticulate,
while Jacob's way too clever with his tongue.
That masquerade in Edom's borrowed kit
earned twenty years of sweat, 'midst sheep and dung.
Those twenty years elapsed, and both men grew
each filled a father's and a rancher's niche.
'Though only one of them remained a Jew
each waxed content, and evidently rich.
When last they'd met, one'd threatened violence
but they're more genial than bellicose
the solemn meeting that began so tense
resolves they'll live in peace--but not live close.
They're wholly reconciled, yet dwell apart
two brothers in two lands, 'though one in heart.

vayeshev IV

Yehudah bought his firstborn son a bride
but got no grandson to enlarge his name.
Another wedding, this groom also died
immortalized in English for his shame.
Tamar did what she must to get it done.
She saw her future in its breadth and depth.
Her fam'ly's a dead-end without a son
but men seem too consumed with fear of death.
Predictably, her father-in-law's pissed
and threatens consequences for her act.
But he'd been partner to her road-side tryst
and now, he's man enough to own the fact.
Moshiach's ancestors were deeply flawed
and when he comes, it's 'cause one played the bawd.

coming out

While Esau bedded every girl around,
his brother Jacob cuddled with a book.
There wasn't room for both in any town
but Rivkah had made sure each learned to cook.
The road his father never got to tread
his mother maps out in her hasty scheme.
New angels to vouchsafe the road ahead
sign in to take their posts within his dream.
Tout-suite, a boy-meets-girl scene at the well
his cousin's manifestly a fine catch
But Laban's unsurprised at tales he'll tell;
this adolescent trickster's met his match.
Let Edom lay to rest the old bad blood
embracing his late-blooming brother stud.

chayya Sarah

A slave plays out the type-scene at the spring
for Yitzhak, who must never leave the Land.
Enticing her with camels, gold, and ring
(the last is for her nose, not for her hand).
His master'd charged him: "Go and take a wife!
But do so for the one who can't be there"
Although that ram redeemed his forfeit life,
Our jealous God's still disinclined to share.
By now, Laban weighed harsh on Rivka's nerves
And prospects in her hometown rated low.
This unseen prince could be what she deserves;
she didn't hesitate to say "let's go!".
The match his mother took no time to find
was left to God when he tried dating blind.

Lot's lot

Lot cast his lot among the cityfolk
less trusting in mishpachah than steel gates.
Reprising hospitality as joke
he scarce escaped his neighbors' fiery fate.
Though never doubting Justice must be done,
his uncle interceded for his skin.
Defense he dared not offer his own son,
seemed requisite for his dead brother's kin.
No such destruction's wholly one man's fault;
He had no veto on how things got done.
But now he's widowed by a post of salt,
His daughters felt obliged to get him sons.
Moshiach's ancestor roots in this text--
strange consequence to drunk illicit sex.

the parochial serves the universal

Strange savior to only kin and kine not caring for his fellows in the least at consanguinity, he draws the line, reserving hospitality to beasts. But neighbors got no warning, no reprieve If their own gods don't specify an ark, they got surprised the day it's time to leave succumbing to the flood, and mud, and Dark. Concern for strangers dawns with Avraham A Light until the Nations' something new confronting God with his own moral qualm Refocuses from "species" down to "Jew". If not a "tzaddik", certainly a sage this new protagonist for a new age.

situational

the neighbors must have asked, but Noah shrugged

so done with advertising what he planned.

He used to socialize, 'til he got mugged

but now he's sure they'll never understand.

The voices coming to him in the night--

insisting he must make this box his home--

would only cause the doomed to fret and fight;

 the dreams were meant for him, and him alone.

A later prophet'd warn Assyria

that God did not approve their errant ways

but Noah'd let the folk of Ninevah

go blithely to their fiery end of days.

within his generation, Noah's best.

But Avraham did better by his guest.

Noach N

A year elapsed, his ark rode out the Flood
distinctions were erased from high and low
to run aground at last, when all was mud.
A new Beginning, where a world might grow.
New Separations! This time, based on hue
like a the first, when God split Dark from Light.
Now, Noach sees distinctly red from blue
no more undifferentiated white.
Erratically, we struggle to progress,
and only information's really gained.
Material subsides back to the mess.
But--incrementally--the world's explained.
Ten generations on, He'll try again
this time, selectively, with chosen men.

Vayigash III

Climactically, the brothers reconcile
once Yosef's satisfied they've grown to men
discarding his disguise, he's done with guile
they've spurned his bait, demurred to sin again.
If precious Benjamin has been ill-used
it's in a higher cause, to heal the rift.
Renewed, the brotherhood that binds all Jews--
although, he can't consent--becomes Ben's gift.
A hope that kingdoms split can reunite
sold as an allegory of twelve sons
who--having feuded--still can get it right
as brothers meant to face the world as one.
Before the plagues smite Egypt and its gods
we've got to make one staff from sundry rods.

Vayera P

When Tantalus served up his only son
Olympus shuddered at the very thought.
That's not how sacrifices should be done;
the favors of the gods were not so bought.
They resurrected Pelops to a tee;
Poseidon loved the lad, from toe to head.
Who--for his part--expressed his piety
performing nightly in His water-bed.
The text of Genesis reworked the plot,
and Gospel writers made it something new.
One God replaced the whole Olympic lot.
This pagan Greek's recast as pious Jew.
The angel staying Abraham's raised knife,
renewed a pagan myth to vibrant life.

Lech l'cha

Two sides of beef stand witness to the b'rit
our patriarch sprawls tripping on the sand.
Where Avram chased off vultures from the meat
his seed would hold clear title to the Land.
A toothless promise, murmured in the night
no rainbow seals the end to death by Flood.
The Promised Land must still be won by fight,
the covenant's not sealed, except in blood.
The dream that Herzl swore was not a dream
was wrested from the Ottomans' defeat
a remedy for peace-time too extreme
took war and devastation to complete.
Yet Makhpelah's not his, 'til it's been bought;
the Conquest--foreordained--must still be fought.

b'reishit N

A serpent guards that garden in the East
where we could picnic, free from thorns, and ants.
Until, conversing with that subtle beast,
we found a need for modesty, and pants.
Uncounted worlds of angels, singing praise,
left Him unsatisfied, and oddly bored.
So our account conceives, in seven days
a "very good" device to please the Lord.
The Tree of Knowledge let God off the hook.
Without freewill, He can't be wholly good.
Theodicy's there in the op'ning book.
It's we that chose to not do as we should.
Let theologians categorize sin;
morality, like God, must dwell within.

Noach II

Each clockwork cosmos, pure, and fair, and just
was found deficient; none could clear the rod.
And yet this compromise, wrought from their dust,
proved somehow satisfactory to God.
Free-will lets monotheists off the hook.
Although there's Evil, God can still be good.
While revelation's there in His good book,
it's willful man that won't act as he should.
The line of Adam must ride out the storms
although our violence screams to the skies,
to build again society, and norms
where no one does what's good in his own eyes.
Repackaged Gilgamesh, and snakes, and mud
lay ethics on old stories of the Flood.

b'reishit N

FirstLight, created ere the moon, or sun
was stored away--for those who can--to find
each spark redeemed, a sacred battle won
perceived not with the eyes, but with the mind.
The written word made history's first mark
preserving poetry of those who'd died
sustaining what might gutter in the dark;
what had been deep could also, now, grow wide.
But is it metaphor? Or the BigBang?
black-body of a cosmos screaming hot?
A pre-galactic, thermal birthing pang.
Perhaps we'd better read it as p'shat.
FirstLight could cast no shadows in our cave
'til Wilson thought to look in microwave.

Vayera M

The voice of God? Or some demonic wraith?
commanded Avraham to bind his son
where Reason balked, he carried on, on Faith
although his seed's invested in this one.
He'd saved his nephew from the fiery rout,
but dared not go to bat for his sole heir.
It took a Shakespeare to ennoble doubt
and lay a hero's vacillations bare.
The man who charged his Maker to be just
won't stay his own hand when the task is hard.
The skepticism tempering Hume's trust
discarded by the mystic Kierkergaard.
But who of us'd endorse the zealot's zeal
without assurances what he'd heard's real?

Vayera N

The voice of God? Or some demonic wraith?
commanded Avraham to bind his son
where Reason balked, he carried on, on Faith
although his seed's invested in this one.
He'd saved his nephew from the fiery rout,
but dared not go to bat for his sole heir.
It took a Shakespeare to ennoble doubt
and lay a hero's vacillations bare.
The man who charged his Maker to play fair
won't stay his own hand when the task is hard.
The skepticism Hume would bring to bear's
discarded by the mystic Kierkergaard.
But who of us'd endorse the zealot's zeal
without assurances what he'd heard's real?

vayechi

what revelations lurk beside the Nile
once famine's chased him off the fam'ly land
that no one'd thought to teach the youngest child
but Benjamin must own, now he's a man
the figures whom he'd always looked up to
who'd seemed so worthy in his boyish eyes
the elder brothers whom he thought he knew
now show their growth acknowledging old lies
his sons have cousins born beyond the fence
untainted by the plotted fratricide
co-equal with him in inheritance
now haughty Reuben's lost his place of pride
to heal the family after all these years
is worth Yosef's deception and some tears

vayechi

one final trick, ere Genesis is done
the trickster tricked, who'd grown rich sowing strife
'though Jacob's right hand's on the younger son
he's not the author of his end of life
imploring Little Joe to swear an oath
he laid his thigh upon his scion's hand
'though Goshen's blessed his flocks and seed with growth
he won't lie mold'ring in this foreign land
the stolen blessing never really paid
he bowed to Esau, and died in galut
regardless of the life-plans he had made
the famine in the land made all that moot
who'd dare to laugh when God brings Jacob home
if only to the fam'ly catacomb

side by side

two nations struggling in one narrow womb
begin the narrative of Toledot
stark competition for the finite room
who gets the pasturage, who gets the vote
the same law binds your stranger and your king
if you're to build a kosher Jewish State
it's all about the Justice, not the bling
and no one buys your PR that "it's great!"
a single state from Jordan to the sea
would have to disenfranchise half the folk
a shabby parody of Herzl's dream
replays the prophecy as bitter joke
the TwoState pact ben-Gurion endorsed
to get to Peace, will have to be enforced

vayeshev

had Potiphar believed what his wife said
the story would have ended, then and there
far worse than prison, Yosef would be dead
for such an extra-marital affair
instead, he fell to rise to greater heights
new clothes, new name and an Egyptian wife
and if he practiced private, foreign rites
he owed the Pharaoh everything in life
well-placed to help his brothers in a bind
although they thought him safely in his grave
to test their mettle, he let them stay blind
until he deemed them changed enough to save
Yehudah'd done teshuvah as a man
who'd sold him to that passing caravan