Jochebed’s Song

- Ruth Fogelman

May 2, 2011

Come, little one, come

drink my milk. I’ll tell you how Abraham

came down to Egypt, and returned to our Land.

He took Isaac, his son, to Moriah.

He built an altar to G-d. He offered up a ram.

Enough jumping, little one, come –

I’ll tell you a tale how Isaac

planned to give earth’s blessings to Esau –

wheat and wine and heaven’s dew,

but was tricked by Jacob’s hairy hand.

Hush, little one, come

drink my milk. I’ll tell you how Jacob

drew water – with a lion’s strength he rolled the well’s stone,

how he toiled in Haran, and how, from his sons,

like almond blossom our tribes grew.

Enough play, little one, come –

I’ll tell you a tale how Joseph

was the sun for Jacob,

and when the boy was sold to a caravan

of merchants, his father was undone.

You too, little one, like this righteous man

who was forced to leave Israel’s tents

and call Pharaoh’s palace a home,

like a flame ablaze in the dark,

will be a beacon to God’s plan.

Ruth Fogelman, a long-time resident of Jerusalem’s Old City, is the winner of the Reuben Rose Poetry Competition, 2006. Her poetry received an honorable mention in the Lindberg Peace Foundation Poetry Contest 2010 and was a commended winner of the John Reid Traditional Poetry Competition, 2007. Ruth’s first full poetry collection, Cradled in God’s Arms, was released in 2009 and her chapbook, Jerusalem Awaking, was recently released. Ruth is author of Within the Walls of Jerusalem - A Personal Perspective. Her poems, articles, short stories and photography have appeared in anthologies and various publications in Israel, the USA and India, including Woman Prayers (ed. Mary Ford-Grabowsky), Harper San Francisco, 2003; The Deronda Review; Bellowing Ark; Arc; Poetica: Reflections on Jewish Thought; Wellsprings; B'Or HaTorah, and e-journals, including International Literary Quarterly and others. Ruth leads the Pri Hadash Women’s Writing Workshop in Jerusalem and holds a Masters Degree from the Creative Writing Program of Bar Ilan University.

Welcome to the New Vilna Review

*A Note From the Publisher - February 8, 2012*

Dear readers and contributors,

The New Vilna Review has been going through some changes the past few

months, and our focus has shifted to offering an expanded selection of

poetry, fiction and arts writing. We are once again accepting submissions,

and look forward to continuing to publish some of the most interesting and

thought provoking work in the world of Jewish arts and letters.

-Daniel E. Levenson

Publisher and Editor-in-Chief

The New Vilna Review

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