Parallels

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