Exodus
The Israelite
experience in the wilderness
Was haunted by the
likes of a skeptic.
In each traveler, there lived a villainous
Scandal of chaos,
an annihilation epic.
In the wilderness
they did not trust
The foundation for
knowledge of the Other.
Even at brother
and sister scandal brushed
Aside the Trust to
be discovered.
God commanded a
census
At the wilderness
journey’s start
Even though Israel
was contentious
Of any other their
scandal might thwart.
The accounting imposed
on each traveler
An acknowledgement
of one another.
It was of a presence
or absence character,
Something skeptics
do not bother.
Only in the
wilderness place
Skepticism
undermines experience.
The census,
though, gave ordered weights
To their
trustworthy trip, not luxuriant.
The Israelite
experience of 40 years,
Their return to
ancient Egypt crushed.
That wilderness
journey with all its tears
Was precisely a
gesture of Trust.
This is a versed paraphrase taken from a paragraph in the book
Bewilderments: Reflections on the Book of Numbers
Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg
Schocken Books - Random House LLC
2015
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