The following is an excerpt from Fragments, the new magazine from Emor.
by Zach Luck
A lifetime of hearing
the miniature stories
of 8 lines
of the 4 Sons
Did not prepare me
for having 4 Children for
sitting at my desk
wondering if i can teach them
how to free themselves
from slavery or anything else.
This year they are playing their roles — in order —
One is Learned, sophisticated 8, studying the
Hogwarts Haggadah like a sturdy scroll
One is Rebellious, ready to run, be done with us,
6, and sick of our stories
One is Simple, 4, facing a confusing world,
demanding glue to repair his delicate plastic seder plate
One does not know how to ask, she is 2,
told me we will have apple cake for dinner
The Rabbis give these little lists of what a Father must teach his Sons:
the Torah, a trade, how to swim, how to get along.
They get so much wrong
(i wouldn’t leave him to the slave masters, i won’t even let him leave
late for school).
But I plead with myself, to learn
from the tiny, truncated stories, if I teach them
to bike
and read
it will be enough,
that they will figure out Freedom on
their own.
Passover 2022
Zach Luck is a father of four children. He lives in Ohio. This is the first poem he has published.
