Va'eira, וָאֵרָא "And I Appeared" Exodus 6:2 - 9:35

Calev and Yehoshua Out of Egypt

Poetic notes on Parashat Vaera*

Calev and Yehoshua

we’re unique among the princes

No other princes of Israel

were fully redeemed in heart and soul

by ten plagues

Calev cleaved to Yehoshua

and Yehoshua cleaved to the aura of Moshe

Twelve princes of Israel

stood at the river of blood

Only two, Calev and Yehoshua, were silent

in the face of angry doubt,

like the dogs were later silent

in the face of zealous death

The Nile was made to crawl

on its belly and eat dust

until it ate blood

Will the whole world eat blood?

asked the ten angry princes

Will the righteous and the wicked

eat blood together?

But the two princes were silent and strong

and did not doubt the servant of God,

when the other princes took a step back

from the bank of the river

Instead, Yehoshua stepped forward

towards where Moshe stood,

where Aaron also stood with his staff

And Calev stepped up and stood with Yehoshua

and drew a line in the sand,

a line all the way out of Egypt

into the Holy Land

Today Pharaoh would not repent,

nor would Amalek tomorrow

And the hunger of the wicked Amorites

would never be filled

When Calev saw the pagan lust for blood,

displayed by God in the waters of the Nile,

he did not need to say to himself out loud

"There but for the grace of God go I…”

For he feared Hashem

to the very silence in his bones

God sent wild beasts on Egypt

but an aura of Moshe on Goshen

Then Calev said, "Come!

Let us bow down and bend the knee

Let us kneel before HaShem our Maker

For He is our God,

and we are the people of His pasture

and the flock of His hand"

If the staff of Moses guarded us

from a river of blood,

will it not guard us from a sea of death?

If the staff of Aaron

rebuked the magicians of Aaron without venom,*

will his staff not correct us without embarrassment?

But how long it will it be before

the children of Israel rise up and march

as one heart and one soul

behind the faith of Caleb and Yehoshua?

When Moses had been going about his business

and had suddenly walked face first

into the burning light,

the unworldly light that burned

but did not consume leaf or fiber,

Moses was ready right then to take off his sandals,

to march into the Land of Abraham, Isaac and Israel,

to step into the land of the resurrection!

But now what is happening?

Pharaoh is holding the children of Israel by the neck

and squeezing from the throat the breath of hope

The heart cannot hear God

saying over again that He is come to save,

The heart cannot hear

on account of the blood that is pounding in the ear

The bloody Nile flows as tears

from the closed eyes of Yerushalayim

Awake, awake; put on your strength, O Żiyyon!

Put on your beautiful garments, O Yerushalayim!

You will be a truly holy city from now on!

For there shall no longer come into you

the unharvested and defiled from the nations

Listen to this, says HaShem,

You were sold for nothing,

and you shall be redeemed by faith in me,

without money