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HOME >> Guidelines for Reconciliation> For Judah

JUDAH - DID YOU KNOW?

A Prose Poem

by Agatha van der Merwe

a re-identifying 10-Triber

A heart rendering plea to Judah for acceptance,

Judah did you know?

There is a hidden remnant of people

Scattered and sown 'mongst the nations afar,

Who discovered we are your brother, Joseph

Responding to a voice that is calling

“This is the way back to the fold.”

Judah did you know?

Bodies that were lying lifeless for ages,

Are waking from long generations of slumber,

Our hearts and ears now being circumcised

To hear the ancient Song of Moses

As in Devarim 32 it was told.

Judah did you know?

When we hear your ancient language,

Something deep in our souls is being stirred.

Tears rolling down our lifting faces

As we find ourselves responding to a seed being watered

Planted in our hearts, thousands of generations old.

Judah did you know?

This is a frightening thing to behold,

When we who are being called from the nations,

Begin to study the Torah right from the start,

Discovering just like Jeremiah told our fathers,

The lies of generations that we were told.

Judah did you know?

Not many are there to accompany us,

As we turn and do teshuvah to HaShem,

Coming forward in isolation,

Truly one from a city and two from a family

Rejected by family, friend and our fold.

as Jeremiah the prophet foretold.

Judah did you know?

For many years we loved you, silently from afar.

The reason until now was unknown to us,

When unexplained, the Spirit would come upon us

Driven to prayer for your return to Eretz Israel,

While we so longed to be one of your own.

Judah did you know?

When seeing pictures of your sages and faithful people

Holding and bending over your precious Torah scrolls

A voiceless yearning came over us,

Respect that can not be put to words,

This unidentified feeling hidden silently in our hearts.

Judah did you know?

When we saw you coming together,

For the Feasts as the Torah commands.

A longing so painful would pull us …

Hearing the joyfull sounds of your music,

Our inner man too wanted to dance with you!

Judah did you know?

Now, like children we are learning your Torah

Stumbling, questioning towards that ancient road

By a light growing stronger every day

Driven by an intensifying hunger

For this treasure so long being hidden from us..

Judah did you know?

Our hearts are longing for the faith of our fathers,

Of Moses and the prophets of old.

Your Halachah O, so very unknown to us.

Please may we take hold of your tzitzit,

As you begin to teach us as Zechariah foretold?

Judah did you know?

We do understand your hesitancy to trust us,

With your living heritage so dear to you.

We don't look like your brothers,

Just foreigners out there, from the nations

Still clad in our former goyishe gear.

Judah did you know?

During darkness and wars that you endured,

Claiming back your inheritance in Eretz Yisra’el,

A faithful remnant of us 'mongst the nations

Embracing the Covenant of our Fathers,

Also prayed and lay down their lives, in order to carry you through.

Judah did you know?

In the recent war fought in Gaza

We watched and prayed daily

As our hearts were crying out to you.

If only we could make aliyah,

We would have been able to fight with you too.

Judah did you know?

The House of Joseph is waiting

As Ezekiel in chapter 37 foretold

This Spirit is breathing upon us,

To take on the Yoke of The Kingdom

That we can worship Hashem together, forever united with you.

Judah did you know?

Upon us the Spirit of repentance endears,

As we're drawn back to HaShem and His fold.

Wont you please now take our hands in fellowship,

So that we in this final generation,

Together, may be restored to His Promised Land?

Agatha van der Merwe

17 February 2009

23 Shevat 5769

BACK to Menu: GUIDELINES FOR RECONCILIATION

Our Mandate - Ezekiel 37:15-28

" The word of HaShem came to me: "Son of man, take a stick of wood and write on it, 'Belonging to Judah and the Israelites associated with him.' Then take another stick of wood, and write on it, 'Ephraim's stick, belonging to Joseph and all the house of Israel associated with him.' Join them together into one stick so that they will become one in your hand.

"When your countrymen ask you, 'Won't you tell us what you mean by this?' say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign HaShem says: 'I am going to take the stick of Joseph - which is in Ephraim's hand - and of the Israelite tribes associated with him, and join it to Judah's stick, making them a single stick of wood, and they will become one in My Hand.' Hold before their eyes the sticks you have written on and say to them, 'This is what the Sovereign HaShem says: 'I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms. They will no longer defile themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding, and I will cleanse them. They will be My People, and I will be their G-d. My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one Shepherd. They will follow My Laws and be careful to keep My Decrees. They will live in the land I gave to My servant Jacob, the land where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children's children will live there forever, and David My servant will be their prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put My Sanctuary among them forever. My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their G-d, and they will be My People. Then the nations will know that I, HaShem, make Israel holy, when My Sanctuary is among them forever.' "