Friday, December 28, 2007

The saga of Exodus begins...


And so we begin
Exodus starts with the names
That's what Shemot* means!

A new king arose
in Egypt where the Jews lived
This guy forgot Joe.

"There are too many!"
Pharaoh thought they might rise up
or join enemies.

So they made them slaves,
they had to work really hard
constructing cities.

Life was bad for Jews,
being slaves was really hard.
But they still "increased."

A new decree came:
When babies are born to Jews
keep girls, kill the boys.

Shifra and Puah,**
the midwives who were so brave,
did not do as told.

One lady gave birth
to a boy she kept hidden
for all of 3 months.

Then she waterproofed
a basket and put him in...
Placed it in the Nile.

His sister watched o'er
as Pharaoh's daughter came out
and rescued the babe.

To keep the baby
the sister offered a nurse -
the baby's own mom!

When he was ready
Mom brought him back to Princess
who named him Moses.

Mo grew up a prince
One day he saw a bad thing
a Hebrew beaten.

Mo looked all around,
saw no one was watching him,
and killed the beater.

Pharaoh heard of it
and was ready to kill Mo
So he fled from town!

He went to Midyan
and met seven girls, daughters
of Jethro the priest.

He defended them
from bad shepherds at the well
They took him to Dad.

He liked this guy, Mo,
gave him Zipporah as wife
made him son-in-law.

One day Mo was out
he saw a bush burning bright
but not burning up!

God called: "Moses! Yo!"
Moses took heed: "Hineni!"***
"You'll free my people."

"Who am I?" said Mo.
God said, "I'll be with you there."
"What's your name?" said Mo.

"I'm the God of their fathers,
Abraham, Isaac and Jake -
I am what I am."

God gave him some signs
that what was said was all true -
a rod, scales and blood.

Mo protested more,
"I am slow of speech and tongue!"
Help comes from Aaron.

They went to Pharaoh
"let my people go, God says!"
But Pharaoh said no.

Things got worse just then
Pharaoh took the straw for bricks
It made the job rough.

The Hebrews got mad
they blamed Mo for their trouble.
But God said, "Don't fret..."

Stay tuned for more of the saga next week!

See more Haiku Friday here.
Shabbat Shalom!

*Shemot is both the name of this week's Torah portion as well as the Hebrew name for the book of Exodus. For more thoughts on what's in a name, check out the Torah commentary for this week from the URJ.
**My favorite biblical name
***Hineni means "here I am."

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

You put such time and effort into these haikus.. I appreciate that!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday too.

suchsimplepleasures said...

this is my favorite part of the story! you do the best haikus!

the planet of janet said...

i think i say this every week:

i LOVE your haikus. i LOVE seeing how you put the story into 5-7-5 (mo??? brilliant)

and it's your birthday? hope it is a happy one! (from a fellow december birthday baby)

Unknown said...

Happy Birthday. I hate mine, but I think after Christmas must be even worse. Ugh. I hope it's good!

I love Moses' story. I think it would be a great novel, wouldn't it.

Maggie said...

Happy Birthday! And thanks for the help with the BSM button too - I still can't get the picture to show up, but I'm a lot farther than before!

Toni said...

Happy Friday and here's to a great '08!

bella said...

Exodus has always been one of my favorite religious texts to read.
It is the story of all of us.

Head Gaggler said...

WOW, you have the most amazing Ku's. Great story.

Scott said...

Exodus in Haiku?
Intelligent. Clever. Awesome.

I'm curious about Leviticus in Limericks.