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Literature and Poetry/
Pesach

Yehuda Amichai

Meditations for the Seder night

Meditations for the Seder night: what is different, we had asked

What makes this night different from all other nights,
Most of us grew up and we don’t ask anymore, while some
continue to ask questions throughout their lives, like when they ask
How are you? or What time is it? and move on
without hearing the answer. What is different, every night,
like an alarm clock whose tick-tock calms us and puts us to sleep
What has changed, everything will change. Change is God.
Meditations for Seder night: the Torah spoke of four sons
One who is wise, one who is wicked, one who is simple, and one
who does not know how to ask. But it doesn’t tell us
about the one who is good or the one who loves.
This is the question that has no answer and if there were an answer
I would not want to know it. I who passed all the sons
in different combinations, I lived my life, the moon shone
on me though I had no need for it and the sun went its way and the
Passover holidays passed without answer. What has changed, Change
is God and death is God’s prophet.

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