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A Poem For the Pentecost
~ A Poem for Shavuos ~ *
Two Jews, three opinions
Twenty-nine of us need three minyans *
Yet when we camped at Sinai, all arguments stopped
Jaws in heaven must have dropped
Angels astonished - Not one human complaint?
If they'd blood in their wings, surely they'd faint
What caused this dramatic transformation
from rank division to unification? ...
The divine souls G-d implanted within us *
embraced their source, Divinity Itself
At that juncture, our fragmented souls reunited
Like 'one man with one heart,' crystal-clear sighted
Quarreling stopped, though later to restart
~ For a magic moment, Divine souls not torn apart
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*Notes: 'Shavuos' is the original Hebrew name of the hol-
iday known to Christians by the name of the 'Pentecost.'
Shavuos means 'weeks:' Seven weeks between Passover
and Shavuos. The next (50th) day is the holiday, the 'Pen-
tecost.' ... A 'minyan' is a Jewish prayer quorum, which re-
quires ten men age 13 or over for public prayers. (The
number '29' in the poem therefore introduces a slightly
jocular tone, as by rights it should be 30)... Finally, see
Genesis 2:7, wherein G-d breathes a soul into Adam
through his nostrils.
Copyright ©
Gershon Wolf
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