The following poem was inspired

by a message given by Joel Chernoff

at Beth Israel Worship Center,

Northern New Jersey, in 2002...

The Red Heifer

THE RED HEIFER

Numbers, Chapter 19 

One isolated evil

One momentary

blast of terrorism

in the land of Israel

…a solitary explosion

into the life of a child

I'll call that child Sarah

Sarah, about six

is of an Orthodox family

(likely a devout family)

I can't say if shrapnel

tore into her tender flesh

don't know if it killed her parents

or blew their home to smithereens

Can't say if a suicide bomber

pulled the pin on a bus

or in the marketplace

I do know Sarah was terrorized

traumatized, hospitalized

and could not keep

from soiling her bedclothes

It happened over

and over and over

night after night

Rage

ravaging

her childhood

from inside out

Kindhearted people

seeking to console

terrorism's youngest victims

sent toys to the hospital…

baby dolls, trucks

all kinds of plush animals

Sarah's nurse invited her

to select a toy for her very own

Reluctantly, Sarah reached

into the big cardboard box

and pulled out a bright red bull

Sarah hugged the red bull

nestled her nose, playfully

into its velvety softness

clutched it close to her chest

kept it right beside her

Sarah talked to her little bull

told it whispery secrets

She loved her bull

and took it to bed

In the morning

Sarah's crisp white sheets

were clean and dry

and the next morning

the sheets were clean and dry

and the next

and the next

and next

so the nurse asked Sarah

what made her stop

soiling the bedclothes

Sarah looked up sweetly

with big dark eyes

and simply told Nurse

of course, she could not dirty

her bed any longer…

the Red Heifer

was with her

Sarah certainly was too young

to comprehend the ordinance

the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron

of the Rite of the Red Heifer

too young to understand

about its ashes

in the "water of cleansing"

that washed away defilement

too young to recognize the Red Heifer

as a foreshadow of Messiah

Neither can I explain

what occurred or how

but I do know

Sarah took her little red bull to bed

and doesn't soil her bedclothes

any longer

Maude Carolan