Thursday, January 24, 2008

The BIG 10...in Haiku, of course

Yitro* of Midyan
(He was Mo's father-in-law)
heard what God had done.
*aka Jethro

He was very glad
that the Israelites were free!
So he came to Mo.

Mo's wife and kids came
with Yitro to celebrate.
Mo told the whole tale.

Now Mo was the judge.
Everyone came to ask him
how to solve disputes.

All day he listened
to all their problems and fights.
Jethro saw all this.

"This is not so good,"
Jethro had a better way.
"Delegate!" he said.

So Mo chose judges.
They judged what they could deal with.
Hard stuff went to Mo.

They got to Sinai -
time for God to explain laws -
A very big deal.

The people washed up
And made themselves very pure
to wait for God's words.

Smoke, fire, lightning crashed
The mountain trembled with fear
Loud blast of the horn!

God spoke these words here:
I am the Eternal God (1)
Make no other gods (2)

Do not swear falsely
by My Name or profane it. (3)
Observe Shabbat (4)

Honor mom and dad (5)
Do not commit murder and (6)
no adultery (7)

Don't steal anything (8)
No false testimony (9) and
no coveting stuff (10)

The people heard all
but were scared of God's presence
So Mo spoke for God.

God told them to make
an altar for sacrifice
without cutting stones.

A simple altar
will be fine for sacrifice.
The people listened.

Ah...do we follow all the laws? Stay tuned for the next few weeks...Exodus rocks.
More Haiku Friday...over here this week while Jennifer gets settled in Indiana.

Shabbat shalom!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was fantastic... Hey, you won the Hand Sanitizer. Send me your address!

Anonymous said...

I just love these. So insightful and informational!

Kat said...

Your haikus are always so incredible. Man! That is amazing!

Jenni said...

I love this! Your haikus are always great.

Anonymous said...

I still have Heston in my head (with a gnawing Mel Brooks, "15..I mean 10...10 commandments") for the Moses. Great way to do the 10. You so impress!

Melissa said...

Yeah, I always see Mel Brooks rather than Heston. Just the way I roll..

But I love the Haiku torah! It's soooo cool!

the planet of janet said...

i'm soooo late in getting to this. but i'm sooo glad i did.

the 10 commandments in haiku??? this is fanTAStic.