SHEMOT

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Exodus 1:1 - 6:1

Time passed. Yakov, who had seen G-d’s face, was dead,
Yosef the righteous dreamer next was mourned.
Then, one by one, the brothers he had led,
The seventy souls the Promised Land had borne.
Their children’s children throve and found life good,
Content merely to live where Yosef built,
The Egyptians too forgot why they had bowed
To Israel’s son. Oppression, scarcely felt
At first, like twilight, deepened. Then it was night.
Till, exiled from exile, Moshe saw flare
That which defies all time. Out of that light
G-d’s voice again spoke, bidding him declare
Freedom from all external might that shames
The soul in generations without names.