Welcome to the big city,
A melting pot of ideas, expressions –
Thought, speech, action.
Sometimes it never sleeps;
Other times it never stops sleeping.
Streets laden with a thousand travelers,
(road scholars)
Leading in a million directions:
Pavement, sentiment, sacrament, firmament;
Asphalt, whose fault? Double fault but never
Falter
More is the city:
Some of brick and stone
But the ones of which we speak –
Flesh and blood
Man – a city, a world, a universe…
And if the cities in which we live
Need direction, law and order,
How much more so the cities which
Live in us
Judges and officers
Shall you appoint
In all your cities
In all your cities, at all you gates:
Gates, city gates:
Gates let things in
Gates let things out;
Gates allow the world inside
To affect the world outside;
And the outside world to
Affect the inside world…
Gates to your heart, gates to your mind –
Walk with a gait, smile in gaiety, gated
On your nerves
These shall be guarded, controlled
By you, lest they be guarded, controlled
By something, someone else –
Law & Order:
You shall appoint judges and officers to these gates –
Judges: decree and decision, through analyzing the situation,
Hearing the testimonies and understanding the circumstances;
Officers: fulfilling, implementing the decree, the decision by
Determination, grit, strength and pure will power…
If judgment, clarity, education does not lead to action
Then something is not right. Because we live in a world
Sometimes antithetical to righteous judgment, a world
Where our purity is covered in soot, we need officers,
People of action to actually shake off the dust, move
Away the accumulated dirt, blow on the tiny glimmer
Of spark so that the flame will arise and the light and
Warmth will turn the cold and dark city into a place called
Home.
Every day is judgment day in the home court,
The most supreme court of all supreme courts –
After all, this one is created in the divine image.
(The day you stop evaluating is the day the jury is hung.)
There is a judge that presides over a kangaroo court
And one that presides over a food court and still another
Presiding over and under a tennis court.
This judge presides over the most supreme
Sublime, superior court of all – the court called
Man
So all rise for the Honorable You,
Presiding over the most supreme court of all –
Your own true self
Mendel Jacobson is a writer, poet and journalist living in Brooklyn. His weekly poetry can be seen at jakeyology.blogspot.com
The words of this author reflect his/her own opinions and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Orthodox Union.