vayera

God tested Avraham; those files are sealed;
We're free to speculate on the result.
For cities on the Plain, he'd wheel and deal
but for his own, won't protest, nor consult.
For Muslims, the prime virtue's to submit,
but Jews object where some consent, and nod.
This episode's the hardest one to fit
for one who'd been so intimate with God.
Poor Yitzhak bore the scars throughout his life
of trauma we can never understand.
A surrogate must chastely woo his wife
unbound, but still strait-bounded by the Land.
The sagest can feel lost without a guide
through texts with which we can't be satisfied

Testing, 1 2 3 testing...

"That woman" Sarah snarled "has got to go!"
and Avraham's bewildered at the switch.
As he'd been told to do, he'd done just so.
No man alive could satisfy this bitch.
God rolled the eyes he hasn't strictly got
commiserating with his favorite Jew.
"It's pointless talking while her wrath burns hot
for now, just as she says, you'd better do".
One final test before his trial's done
if one so elevated might rise higher.
Please lay your only one beloved son
to elevate on an impromptu pyre.
Each year, we struggle somehow sense to make
of this pericope, that's still opaque.

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.

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.

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?

another voice

a camping trip with dad could do us good
away from mom and flocks and chores and tents
he's got the fire and I've the dry split wood
was I supposed to bring the sacrament?
his promise doesn't make sense in this life
although our little clan has all we need
fulfillment would require I have a wife
to propagate his values and his seed
if I'm to die, how's that supposed to work?
mom's always told me I'm his only one
since he kicked out that woman and her jerk
where's he--so old--to get another son?
we two alone, my old man's flipped his lid
convinced that I'm the sacrificial kid