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Between Past and Future
I. (In the academy: a conversation between master and student)
Rabbi, when will the Messiah come?
Why do you ask me? Go ask him.
But Rabbi, how will I find the Messiah?
No problem. He sits among the sick and homeless at the
gates of the Pentagon.
But Rabbi, by what sign will I recognize the Messiah?
Look among the “lepers” (those afflicted with AIDS). You
will see him untying and retying his bandages one by one.
“I may be summoned,” he thinks; “let me not be delayed by
these bandages.”
II. (At the gates of the Pentagon)
Peace upon you, my Master and Teacher.
And upon you, son of Levi. What can I do for you?
When will you come, Master?
Today, my son. I will come today.
III. (Back in the academy)
So, out with it. What did the Messiah say to you?
Rabbi, he lied. He said he would come today. But Rabbi,
the Messiah has not come.
Here is what he said to you: “Today, if only you hearken
to His voice.” (Ps. 95:7) Ears open, my son; it’s always today,
and never for long.
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Tom Mandel’s many books include Letter to Poetry (Chax, 2022), To the Cognoscenti (Atelos, 2007), Prospect of Release (Chax, 1996), Letters of the Law (Sun & Moon, 1994), and Realism (Burning Deck, 1992). He is a co-author of The Grand Piano, a ten-volume experiment in collective autobiography. Mandel’s work is widely anthologized, including In the American Tree, The Norton Anthology of Post-Modern Verse (1st Edition), multiple volumes of Best American Poetry, and 49+1: Poètes Americain. Born in Chicago, Tom Mandel was educated in its jazz & blues clubs & at the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought. He has taught at three universities & worked as a consultant to UNESCO, acquisitions book editor, door-to-door salesman, network technology consultant, & short order cook. For two decades, he was a serial technology entrepreneur, pioneering the development of social software on the Web. He has lived in New York, Paris, San Francisco, and Washington DC. At present, he and his wife, the poet Beth Baruch Joselow, reside in a small town on the Atlantic Coast. [This poem is the author’s version of an old rabbinic tale from the Talmud (Sanhedrin 98A)].
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Maurycy Gottlieb, Jews Praying in Synagogue on Yom Kippur, 1877.
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Author: Terence Winch
