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Shalshelet
llana Kurshan
“The servant said, ‘O Lord, God of my master Abraham, grant me good fortune this day…’ The man, meanwhile, stood gazing at her, silently wondering whether the Lord had made his errand successful or not.” (Genesis 24:12, 21)
In the verse above, the word “said” is marked by the Shalshelet, a cantillation note that is understood to signify tremulous hesitation and ambivalence. According to the midrash in Breishit Rabbah (59:9), Abraham’s servant hoped that his own daughter might be suitable to marry Isaac and thus become Abraham’s heir. In this poem I tried to capture the servant’s hesitation and ambivalence when he encounters Rebecca at the well.
I stand in wonder gazing by the well.
The camels kneel beside me at the trough
The desert sun sinks low. I wipe my brow
And sip uncertain as the day cools off.
The water seems to rise into her jug
She moves with grace as if the scene’s rehearsed,
Then rushes to and fro. Her camels, mine--
Lest any of the beasts of burden thirst.
Who is this woman? Is she heaven-sent?
Is she the one my master’s son will wed?
I promised I would come. I’m here. And yet—
Might my own daughter pledge his troth instead?
The bangled bracelets rattle in my sack.
She clasps them and I ask her father’s name.
It’s she, and not my daughter. Not a sigh.
I kneel in prayer and homage just the same.
For I’m a servant, to my fate resigned.
Henceforth: I hoped for nothing but this sign.
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The Talmud teaches that the Torah was given in black fire on white fire (Y. Shekalim 6:1). The black fire is the letters of the Torah scroll, and the white fire is the parchment background. In this column, consisting of a poem on each parashah, I will try to illuminate the white fire of Torah – the midrashim, stories, and interpretations that carve out the negative space of the letters and give them shape.
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