Email Poem

Your IP Address: 3.144.115.20
Your Email Address:
To Email Address:
Subject
Personal Note:
Poem Title:
Poem
As Passover neared, in the camp* grew a fear           *Nazi WW2 death camp
  that this might be the very first year
for Jews of every stripe and denomination
  they'd not have matzo to eat, an abomination
    
To the Lord Above Who'd taken them out
  of Egypt with signs and wonders and shouts
and Who'd decreed long ago that Passover night
  --Matzo they'd eat as their feet took flight

From the House of Bondage toward the Promised Land
  to exchange rank servitude for the Holy Sand
of Beersheba, Jerusalem, the Judean Hills
  to build His Temple, to do His Will

When a humble Jewish baker to the rescue came
  promising to bake for each Jewish prisoner the same
number of matzos -- two -- not three and not four
  He would risk his life by cooking more... 

To the task he lowered his worn, tired shoulder
  with a defiant courage, many times bolder
than the greatest heroes of history, his proposition
  --But just then, the Rabbi's son stated his position

His father told him he required four
  matzos, not one less, not one more...
Well, the baker said, No, No, Never
  He only gets two, no matter how clever

His plea or his Talmudic expertise
  So then the son fell to his knees
Crying that he couldn't return without four
  --Else his father's very life would be no more

The baker saw that the son would not be deterred
  and decided that to his request he would have to defer
He gave him four matzos and told him to be quiet
  if he valued his life and would prevent a riot

So the Rabbi got four matzos; the others received two
  All was quiet; no one suspected or knew
'Till it was time to eat the matzos and the Rabbi appeared
  at the barracks of the baker, eyes covered with tears

And said, 'Here are your two matzos, my friend so good and so dear
  You provided for all the others but forgot yourself, as I'd feared'


   --based on Rabbi Moshe Katz' prose story in "The Chicago Jewish Home," 
     April, 2019 edition
CAPTCHA Preview
Type the characters you see in the picture
Required