The Veil

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