My grandfather kept silent about all the horrors carved into his body Only the fading number on his left forearm Remained as an un-deciphered code of his past. “It is because of what God did for me” he mumbled in his waning days. Back then I didn’t pay attention I didn’t speak Polish. Once I had known how to ask Intelligently, innocently, with a pinch of malice. I skipped lightly from destruction to redemption From memorial days to rebirth The “It is because” silenced my nighttime fears. My daughters look at me like the child who does not know how to ask I want to prompt them It is Because Osnat Eldar Translated by Michael Bohnen, Heather Silverman & Rachel Korazim
In order to stabilize their cracked land To delineate for them the promised land But that Shabbat Holds me back from promising them “It is because of what God did for me when I left Egypt”*
*As for the child who does not know how to ask, you must prompt him [or: you must initiate the conversation with him], for it is written, “It is because of what God did for me when I left Egypt.” (Exodus, 13:8) --Passover Haggadah, based on the Mishnah
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