Yisro faced a defining hour
As chief priest of Egypt.
The greatest world power,
One of three top advisors
Of Pharaoh’s reign,
He was called upon
To ascertain
A solution to the Hebrew problem,
For the land of Egypt
Was filled with them.
Iyov feared Pharaoh’s backlash,
So he said nothing;
His silence
Brought Iyov great suffering.
Yisro was brave,
Gave Pharaoh sound advice:
All who seek their destruction
Had better think twice:
Their G-d loves them,
He is still their true Master;
Attempts at decimation
Would result in disaster.
Yisro saw Pharaoh’s face fall,
Though it was the right call;
In speaking the truth
Yisro forfeited all.
Bilaam advocated genocide,
Their G-d can be out-maneuvered,
For He’d specified
After the Mabul
He would not bring about
Flood waters
To blot creation out;
He acknowledged
G-d’s justice,
Midah k’neged midah.
But, His word will constrain Him,
Bilaam claimed with chutzpah;
Drown their sons in the Nile –
Bilaam’s clever plan
Pharaoh approved,
The murder began.
Once revered,
Yisro was ostracized
In Midian, bullied and despised
At the well, his daughters brutalized.
But events at the Yam Suf catalyzed
Enlightenment, for Yisro realized
All the world’s gods
Were fantasized –
Yisro’d worshipped
Every false god
Of the ancient world’s plethora
Discerned, earned a place
In G-d’s eternal Torah.
Hashem raises the lowly,
Honor bestowed
On those who have
A moral code;
Though many have fallen
When they stood for what’s right,
Some even have paid
The ultimate price.
It’s a funny, old world,
Empires come and go,
Things sometimes seem random,
But this much we know:
Our faith may be challenged,
We may stand alone, still
You’ll never regret
Doing Hashem’s will;
We gain strength from his courage,
May his brave soul rejoice
When faced with his test –
May we make Yisro’s choice!
By Sharon Marcus