תורת אבי, Things I learned from my father

מתנה לאבא שלי, ליום הולדתו השבעים, שחל  יום לפני יום ההולדת של דר' מרטין לות'ר קינג. השיר מתאים לשניהם. תודה, אבא, שלימדת אותי, בדוגמה אישית, לשמוע מוסר.

A present for my father, on his 70th birthday, which was yesterday, a day before Dr. Martin Luther King's. The poem suits them both. Thank you, aba, for showing me, by example, how to use a moral compass.

Tod Papagegorge: Father and Son, Central Park. (1980)

71 A.D / Meir Wieseltier


My son, do not join the Sicarii host in a rage.
Lend not your ear to Ben-Ya'ir in his raving.
Take not your wife and children to a cliff in the desert.
Wear not daggers concealed in the folds of a cloak.


Take your delicate wife and your tender children,
Find a home for yourself in Lod or in Kerem Yavneh.
Roman rule from Hispania to the borders of Parthia is spread.
A Torah of life, for to live by, and not with the dead.

71 לספירה / מאיר ויזלטיר בְּנִי, אַל תִּסָּפַח אֶל עֲדַת סִיקְרִיקִין בִּתְזָזִית. אַל תַּטֶּה אֹזֶן לְלַהְלוּהֵי בֶּן-יָאִיר. אַל תִּקַּח אִשְׁתְּךָ וְטַפְּךָ אֶל רֹאשׁ צוּק בַּמִּדְבָּר. אַל תַּחֲגוֹר פִּגְיוֹנוֹת מְחֻפִּים בִּגְלִימָה. טוֹל אִשְׁתְּךָ הָעֲדִינָה וְטַפְּךָ הָרַכִּים, קַח לְךָ בַּיִת בְּלוּד אוֹ בְּכֶרֶם יַבְנֶה. רוֹמִי מוֹשֶׁלֶת מֵאִסְפַּנְיָה עַד גְּבוּל הַפַּרְתִּים. תּוֹרַת חַיִּים, וְחָיִיתָ בָּהּ, וְלֹא בַּמֵּתִים.

For readers who might not know some of the key references in Wieseltier's poem: 70 AD is the year in which the Romans sacked Jerusalem and the temple. The poem was written in 1971. The Sicarii (Latin for 'dagger-men') were an extremist, violent Jewish political group of the time. Ele'azar Ben-Ya'ir was one of their leaders, who later lead the (in)famous collective suicide at Masada.