Mashiach Ben-Yoseph
by Elhanan Ben-Avraham
What specie of blindness
Afflicts the eyes
That eleven men wise of the ages
See not their own brother?
Let us slay our brother Yoseph
Lest the sun and moon and stars
Lay down themselves before him,
Like his dream!
What manner of darkness
Envelops the heart
That the brothers of a king
Know not his voice?
Let us sell him to the Gentiles
Lest we bow ourselves before him
And our father too be humbled,
Like his dream!
What genus of deafness clogs the ear
Of the wise and learned children
That they cannot seem to hear
The pleading holy word?
Did we not see tears
In the eyes of the king
As he laden down our donkies
With his grain?
Were the cataracts inflicted
By the cross-shaped swords
In the blood-stained hands of demons
Cutting children in his name?
Were we not sore afraid
And troubled at his presence
When we knew our very brother
Who revealed himself before us!
Were the ears waxed closed
By the retching cry of infants,
And the hearts charred black
By the sickening heavy smoke
Of the fires it by monsters
In his name?
How our tears were flowing freely
As we ate there at his table
And we knew that we’d thought evil
But that God had meant to save us
As we gazed upon our brother,
Now a king.
What specie of tree
And family of wood
Was used to raise the sign
That the Jewish king of Israel
Has forgiven all his brethren
To take away their mourning,
To clothe them now with gladness
And to save alive much people,
In his name?
Mashiach Ben-Yoseph (Artistic Drawing by Elhanan Ben-Avraham)
