Miketz, מִקֵּץ. "At the End" Genesis 41:1-44:17

Miketz and Miracles 5783

Poetic notes on the parashat Miketz*

Mashiach unlocks dark prisons

He brings the prisoners out of the deep pit

and is gentle on their eyes

Mashiach lights the menorah of eternal light,

just a small menorah at first

Yet it exposes the great darkness of time

Time that fell through Adam's fingers...

Stolen time flowing into a river of polluted history,

until history became a dark bullet train shooting by

Look! See the streaking bullet of time,

shooting toward an end,

carrying Jews in prison cars, boxcars,

ever nearer to the end of the rails

Mashiach uncouples the prison cars from the engine

Mashiach unlocks the doors of dark, gaseous prison cells

The engine of polluted time pushes hard up the hill

The prison cars roll backwards on their tracks,

even while the engine of time crests the hill

and speeds on ahead to its end

Pharaoh the engineer, slept and dreamt

He built pyramids of apostasy and rebellion against God

He built temples like trains travelling through the ages

He slept and dreamt,

while his high speed train stopped here and there

to collect God's children,

to acculturate them to a nation of ungodliness

and assimilate them into the body of death

Pharaoh dreamt as his train of genocide sped on ahead

Through the heavy weight of darkness,

the Jews and the others in the prison cars

could not feel their loved ones

They could not feel where they were

Pharaoh dreamt of seven fat eons of time

Those eons of time looked like seven fattened oxen angels

Then seven lean cross currents of time arose

They arose like flood waves of the Nile,

looking like seven starving oxen angels

And the starving oxen angels

devoured the fattened oxen angels

The seven thin eons of time devoured the seven fat eons

And Pharaoh awoke with sweat steaming from his brow

Then he dreamt a second time

Seven healthy imperial economies appeared,

looking like seven tall, divinely glorious stalks of corn

Seven diseased, demonic economies appeared,

looking like seven bedevilled stalks of corn

The bedevilled stalks devoured the healthy ones

Pharaoh awoke,

screaming for the train's magicians,

for its soldiers and mechanics,

for all those he trained to lie to him

He screamed for them to come and save him from the truth

and protect him from the Jews

When egos are in power,

nobody knows anyone

No one could heal Pharaoh’s heart or calm his panic

Then someone said, "There is a Hebrew kid"

"He has a certain way, maybe he can help!"

Pharaoh knew no Hebrew

He didn't know it was the son of Jacob

Pharaoh didnt know Joseph was a rock

Pharaoh sent for the Hebrew kid

and they brought him to the Engine

He said, "God has told Pharaoh the truth"

"This train of prison time is coming to an end"

"Go back, and lock yourself down in the livestock cars,

in which you have the Jews"

"For Mashiach is coming and will unlock those cars

Before the engine comes roaring to an end

it will be those in those livestock cars who will be saved

God only knows what Pharaoh actually heard

But his heart was a little calmer

He said, "Say more!"

So, the Hebrew kid continued,

"Accordingly, let Pharaoh find a man of mercy,

who will guide him to his knees

and teach him to pray the prayer of truth

Pharaoh must bow the knee in the boxcar of the Jews!

When Pharaoh takes hold of the garments of the Jews,

they might allow him to go with them,

when their prison cars roll backwards

when they roll with Moses down the mountain"

Then in that last hour Pharaoh moved car by car

toward the prison cars of the Jews

Pharaoh sought the truth with which to pray

He found many truths and enlightenments,

but did he find the truth without spin, without any flaw?

He found many kinds of repentance,

with many kinds of tears,

but did he ever find the repentance of the Jews?

When will I speak the complete truth before God?

How broken is my heart

on account of all the evil that's been done?

How broken is my heart,

to see the human race to have become so selfish

and self-destructive, people against people,

child against child...

the human soul against itself,

the human heart gone wild

How destructive have I become,

as I ride upon the train of life,

speeding toward my end…

Is what I have done to the world beyond repair?

Or is it possible that in the end it is

only my own heart that is broken?

However, Pharaoh’s son came up behind him and mocked him

and said, “Where is your pride!”

Then Pharaoh’s son picked up Pharaoh’s ego,

which Pharaoh had set upon the ground

And he took Pharaoh’s ego and went off to do mischief

He went out and chose companions

only according to what he felt would enrich himself,

accordingly, he began to spiral down into oblivion

Once upon a time,

Jacob’s sons were exiled in Canaan,

exiled even in their own promised land,

because they had exiled their brother to Egypt

After this, they had gone down themselves to Egypt

And found themselves accused of espionage

Go back and return to me with Benjamin,

Egypt’s viceroy had said,

if you can prove that you are innocent

The viceroy of Egypt put them in the prisoner’s dock

But who in truth was speaking?

The God of their fathers ruled over this eternal courtroom

They were guilty of a crime only God could name

How could they make it right?

How could they rectify

what they had done to the firstborn son of Rachel?

What’s at the heart of the repentance of the Jews?

Could Pharaoh ever learn?

Could the workers on his train ever know?

Pharaoh began by knocking on their boxcar door,

to see if they would let him in

Joseph came to the boxcar door

Reuben held the light

Pharaoh waited thinking

Maybe this way he could be forgiven

Maybe this way, one day

He could stand and light a candle with Mashiach

on the Festival of Lights