Yaakov knew
The time had come:
His chapter closing,
Now it was up to his sons.
Gather yourselves,
Yaakov had said,
Hear of the Redemption
In the times ahead.
About to speak,
Resolute, composed,
When suddenly,
The window closed,
Disconnect hit,
The prophecy veiled.
A dread consumed Yaakov;
Had he in fact, failed?
His sons proclaimed
In unison:
Hear, O Israel,
Hashem is G-d,
Hashem is One.
The Sh’chinah returned,
Yaakov able to give
Blessings suited to
Each tribe’s objective.
The prophecy of Redemption,
However, was gone.
Until today, we still pray
Awaiting the dawn.
Would it have been better
Knowing the date?
Would it have enabled
More to keep faith?
Or would we again
Miscalculate
As we did by Mount Sinai
With our tragic mistake?
We hold to the promise
Through millennia
In the crucible
Of the diaspora.
Would more have been lost
In bleak times, if aware
That hope was far off?
Would more fall to despair?
Yaakov’s greatness
Was recognized,
His arrival brought
The Nile’s rise,
The famine ended,
The land enriched
In Yaakov and his son’s merit.
With Yaakov’s end,
Days of evil began:
Yaakov’s children enslaved,
A nefarious plan
To break us, the labor
Intensified
Then escalated to genocide.
HaKadosh Baruch Hu
Remembered us,
As He promised He would,
Redeemed us with great wonders,
The world saw His great good.
The Ultimate Redemption
Will eclipse even this.
The process had begun
With Egypt’s Exodus,
The culmination
Of struggle,
The sorrow and pain,
All counts, we will one day
Witness again
HaKadosh Baruch Hu’s
Salvation,
When He lifts the veil,
Brings the light
Of Redemption
To Israel.
By Sharon Marcus
