Plagued by a cold confusion,
By a reality so confined and
Constricted, a face so masked
And distorted, it looks to be a
Utopian nirvana to those in
Its super-vise clutches…
A prison so intense, it seems
Like freedom to its prisoners
An exile so deep, the exiled
Think it to be redemption
Night so cold and dark, the blind
Picture it as the warmest sunlight
A world so dazed and lost, its
Inhabitants think it found and
Focused…
This is the world of which we
Know and have come to love –
This is Egypt: a place where
The body of the beast is wors-
Hipped and the soul of man is
Denied
A world where the underbelly
Of society is overfed and the
Understated purity is starved
Sick
A world where the boundless
Energy of the Divine Image is
Channeled to creating separation
And our underlying unity stands
Forgotten and alone
Such is life here in Egypt;
And such is how we live.
I am G-d and I shall take you out
From under the burdens of Egypt
And G-d revealed His Name and
The four expressions of redemption;
G-d told the people, through Moshe,
That He will free them; pull them out
Of this unnatural state and take them
To the Holy Land of Israel…
But they did not heed Moshe
Because of shortness of breath
And hard work
But the darkness is so deep, the
Mirage seemingly so real, the breath
So short and the hope shorter yet,
That the people do not heed, cannot
Understand freedom, cannot believe in a
Promised Land and do not recognize G-d
They are so broken they cannot imagine
Ever being whole again…
He held the staff aloft and
Struck the water…
And all the water that was in
The river changed to blood
One must fight a plaguing situation
With a plague of ones own…
When one is in de-Nile one must be
Shaken loose, pulled and dried off:
The first step is turning all that which
Is cold and calculated into that which
Is warm and passionate: turning the
Frigid waters of Egypt into the blood
That is Life…
Then, when one has a purpose, a fire
To live, one can begin throwing off
The shackles that are binding and free
The heart that is bound…
Plagues are not (only) punishments
For the wrongs done –
They are (also) the steps to a refined
Clarity that allows for us to see the
Rights that can be done
Plaguerized – opening the door to the
Prison so that Man can run free
Mendel Jacobson is a writer, poet and journalist living in Brooklyn. His weekly poetry can be seen at jakeyology.blogspot.com
The words of this author reflect his/her own opinions and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Orthodox Union.