LR Waldman Poet Rhyme

The Empty Tomb and Taharah

Taharah (Hebrew)
The Empty Tomb 

Sunday morning they went to the tomb
And found it empty and felt gloom

“He is risen,” they were told
And even then, they were not bold

But what of the purpose of their mission?
To anoint the body, is the admission
But why anoint rotting flesh?
The purpose of anointing, to keep the smell fresh
As a body was carried to its end
The deceased did not wish to offend

Spices were placed on the rotting flesh
So while passing people, it would smell fresh

This would disgrace the newly deceased
Something to prevent, in the Jewish mid-east.

So this very act is nothing more
Than a plot device, a literary chore
To have the tomb discovered bare
So that followers would not dispair.

But now we have another err
That is rarely laid to bare

Women would never clean a male
Only men could receive that hail
And if they did, a strong bewail

Women cleaned only the female dead
A task that men would never tread

So when you hear these tales disagree
It matters not whether the numbers agree
For the story itself could never have been
Nothing more than a literary scene.

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