בראשית / Bereishit / Bereishis / Genesis 28:10-32:3
Printable PDF version here.
Parsha narrative overview here.
Copywork sheet available here.
Shmuli was reading his old baby book.
“Hey!” he said, “come here; take a look!”
“It’s missing something,” he said, quizzically,
His parents came near and sat down alongside,
They smiled at him and they told him with pride,
“You have something in common with Yaakov’s own sons.”
“Do you mean the shevatim?” “Yup, those are the ones.”
He’d read this week’s parsha; Vayeitzei, it’s called.
He knew all its stories; they’d kept him enthralled.
“Remember which wife Yaakov loved then the best?”
Shmuli knew it was Rachel who had been so blessed.
Well, Rachel loved Yaakov and tried very hard
To bear loyal children who’d always stand guard.
But she couldn’t have babies, though she davened and cried,
And she wanted a son she could raise up with pride.
“Take Bilhah,” she told Yaakov (back then he could)
And Hashem looked and saw that it was very good.
He gave Rachel a baby, a son of her own,
Through Bilhah, whose kindness and goodness she’d shown.
Shmuli asked, “but wasn’t it Bilhah’s own son?”
“Well, Hashem knew that Rachel was the best one
Rachel, who was Yaakov’s favourite wife.”
“Well, that’s very interesting,” Shmuli had to agree,
“But what does that stuff have to do now with me?”
And his father said, “Shmuli, it’s always Hashem,
Who chooses kids’ parents, finds babies for them.”
Usually, families are made right at birth,
You’ll find families like that all over the earth;
The mother grows bigger and then, at long last,
A new baby is born and then grows up so fast.
But sometimes, Hashem finds a different way
To bring folks the child for which they might pray.
Rachel didn’t need to use her own womb,
To open her heart and her home to make room
For that son and his brother who soon came along,
Who would grow to be tribes in a family so strong.
“Just like them, you were born in a different place,
But we’ve loved you since we first glimpsed your sweet face.”
In this parsha we learn of twelve very odd stones,
Who wanted to hold up a young tzaddik’s bones
When Yaakov lay down on the ground with no bed,
They all wanted the honour of holding his head.
And Hashem made a neis, made the stones all unite,
Come together despite different sizes and height,
Born deep in the ground and in places far-flung,
To be close to the tzaddik, they faithfully clung.
“And that’s just like our family – it’s all about knowing
Hashem does the choosing to keep families growing
And like those twelve rocks, where Yaakov once lay
We’ll serve Him together… and together we’ll stay.”
... and it's all right there in the parsha, but you've expressed so beautifully how some people come to be parents in a variety of ways. I think you should send this one to Mel over at stirrup queens.
ReplyDeleteI love this. Thank you so much for writing this. I have saved it to hopefully read one day when Hashem helps us find a child to come into our family in an unusual way.
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