B’shalach – בְּשַׁלַּח (Exodus 13:17−17:16)
This Week’s Torah Portion: B’shalach – בְּשַׁלַּח (Exodus 13:17−17:166)
Freedom Song
Cantor Lauren Adesnik 4.17.2020
My strength is
my song.
My song
Is
Adonai.
The Sea
Was…
A disaster.
Moses praying.
Precious
Objects hurled
Thrown to churning currents
As if
Their value would stop the chaos.
The tears of my people-
They are more than enough to
Fill
A hundred seas.
So I jumped.
I slid and slipped,
And Moses prayed, and precious stones flew, and tears fell…
And I sang.
As I felt my last breath leaving my body
The salt water filling my crevices
The song erupted.
Michamocha BaElim Adonai, MiKamocha Ne’edar Bakodesh?
Who is like you, Adonai?
I sang the sea apart.
I sang my people to the desert beyond sight lines.
I sang them to the shores, and then they sang too.
For my song is my strength,
And God is my Song, so God is my strength.
And God is their song and their strength too.
God is all of ours.
Ozi V’zimrat Yah
God is
our song,
our strength,
our redeemer.
Now what will we do with our freedom?