While Abraham was binding Isaac
to Mount Moriah he was interrupted by
a knock at the door.
"Who could this be?" he thought.
"We don't even own a door," he cried.
So he continued binding Isaac to the
altar. Again, a knock that could make
the deaf hear. Abraham had to stop
and look for the door.
He yelled, "Leave me alone, I'm doing
God's work!" and returned to continue
the akedah. And again a knock interrupted
him, and again, and again---Abraham
did not know what to do, whether to laugh
or to cry.
And then he thought: "This will be
the history of my children. When we will
be doing our work or God's work there will
always come a knock at the door to interrupt
us...whether we own a door or not." And
it came to pass that the history of the Jews
is a history of interruptions.
Line 12 *akedah* from the Hebrew meaning the act of binding cf. Genesis 22:9.
This poem was written in September 1981, now 35 years ago and was first published 30 years ago in the now long defunct Orim; A Jewish Journal at Yale 2:1 (Autumn 1986) p. 35.