A mighty hunter,
A fearsome king
Was Nimrod
In Ur Kasdim,
Descended from Cham,
Noah’s wicked son,
Ruled as god,
With his conquest of Babylon.
Nimrod’s ministers saw
A large star rise;
It rocketed across the skies,
Its predominance was manifest,
Swallowed four stars
North, south, east, and west.
This star would dispel
Nimrod’s deity,
It had to be destroyed
Immediately;
All newborn boys
Were slaughtered,
Over 700,000 died,
Problem solved,
Nimrod was satisfied.
Years later,
Down the road,
Avraham faced
The same wicked Nimrod.
Avraham wouldn’t bow down,
Nimrod sentenced him
To burn in the iron furnace
Of Ur Kasdim.
Avraham walked out,
Unscathed from the flames.
He had sanctified
HaKadosh Baruch Hu’s Name.
Another son of Cham,
Mitzrayim,
Ruled as a god,
All worshipped him;
Pharaoh also murdered thousands
When signs foretold
A redeemer was born
Who would threaten his control.
In Egypt, the Hebrew tribes
Came to be
Myriads
Born into slavery;
Mitzrayim was
The iron furnace,
Suspended our currency
Of existence.
But the “etzem,”
The core of essence remained
The tribe’s greatness within us:
We still carried their names,
Time to gather
Mesiras nefesh,
Courage from within,
The Redemption from Egypt
Was about to begin.
No slave made it out
Of the iron furnace alive,
But nothing stops
Hashem’s deliverance
When it’s time arrives.
Yaakov had dreaded
Going into exile
Down to an evil land
With an immoral lifestyle.
But HaKadosh Baruch Hu
Accompanied him
Down Into the darkness;
He would also bring us up,
We would see justice.
Our world is in chaos,
Deteriorating by the day,
Unjust and immoral,
Safety fading away.
May Hashem take us home
Before the land swallows us;
May we merit the Redemption
Of the final exodus.
By Sharon Marcus
