The Jew I Save

By Sidney Boyarin
December 1991

From Ur I walked with Abraham
and knew the knife withheld at Mt. Moriah.

Thus my covenant was born,
My Bond given and my suffering fated
I was not chosen to attain power, to master nations,
To accumulate wealth for its own sake,
But to give inspiration to all who see,
To aspire to realization of the divine in all.

In Sura gray beards pondered
And left the lesson that to be chosen
Is exultation, the reward of the covenant.
I ask, “But why the suffering, the almost unbearable pain of centuries?”
I hear the answer, “So you can know.”

“So I can know?” I ask. YES.
KNOW! The eighth day cry is only the beginning.
And the Song of Songs not the glory,
And glory not the goal.

Israel seek not thy dimension
In widening flat parameters.
Your might can only be a light that leads the nations
In ever ascending roads to Peace
And Hillel’s rules carry all ever higher
With hopes and hearts uplifted.

Thus I see my peculiar fix –
A mix – of pain and work.
And exultation maybe:
Yet this I choose. A Jew to be.

Now the first light brings sharply etched understanding.
In God’s world I am only a renter,
And the security I pledged for my tenancy
Is the well-being of my generations.
The Jew in me must mark it well.
The Jew in me is the one I save!