Yehuda Amichai Poem "Passover"

Haggadah Section: Introduction

The Eleventh and Twelfth Commandments: Don't Change! Change
By Yehuda Amichai

My father was a god and did not know it.
He gave me The Ten Commandments neither in thunder nor in furry;
neither in fire nor in cloud
But rather in gentleness and love.

And he added caresses and kind words and he added “I beg You,” and “please.”
And he sang “keep” and “remember” the Shabbat In a single melody
And he pleaded and cried quietly between one utterance and the next ,
“Do not take the name of God in vain,” do not take it, not in vain, I beg you,
“Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
And he hugged me tightly and whispered in my ear “Do not steal. Do not commit adultery. Do not murder.”
And he put the palms of his open hands On my head wit the Yom Kippur blessing. “Honor, love, in order that your days might be long On the earth.”

And my father’s voice was white like the hair on his head.

Later on he turned his face to me one last time

Like on the day when he died in my arms and said I want to add Two to the Ten Commandments:
The eleventh commandment – “Thou shall not change.”
And the twelfth commandment – “Thou must surely change.”
So said my father and then he turned from me and walked off Disappearing into his strange distances.

Source:  
Yehuda Amichai
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Table of contents
  • Passover Seder in Manila, Philippines, 1925
  • Iraqi Passover Haggadah, 1902
  • 1958 Seder
  • Jews Celebrating Passover. Lubok, 19th century
    • Introduction
  • Greetings
  • Yehuda Amichai Poem "Passover"
  • Making Halaik
  • The Journey, In Gerangl
  • Spain, Italy, Sicily, Morocco, Tunisia, Sardinia, and Hungary
  • Official Passover Haggadah for Pasifika Jews
    • Kadesh
  • La primera copa de vino
    • Urchatz
  • Ethiopian Jewish Customs
    • Karpas
  • Karpas History
    • -- Four Questions
  • Three Questions
  • Four Questions (sephardi)
  • Four Questions Yiddish
  • Las Cuatro Preguntas (Ladino)
  • Ma Nishtana in Luganda
  • Four Questions in Spanish
  • Multi Lingual Four Questions
  • Four Questions in Judeo-Persian/Farsi (Transliterated)
  • Di Fir Kashes (The Four Questions in Yiddish, corrected)
  • Ма ніштана – Чотири питання
    • Commentary / Readings
  • The Global History of Ma Nishtana
  • A Special Father-Son Duo and Their Unique Indian Charoset
  • The Spanish Roots of Classic Chicken Soup
  • A Modern Passover Miracle
  • A Prayer for Peace in the World
  • An immigrant from the Soviet Union Celebrates Her First Passover
  • The Global Experience of Passover
  • Passover: Engaging Across Differences
  • Entrée From Estonia
  • Passover Torah Teaching
  • Excerpts from “Passover Nights,” Hava Shapiro (1925)
    • -- Four Children
  • "Четверо дітей". Авторка Зоя Черкаська-Ннаді
  • 4 children
    • -- Exodus Story
  • American Soviet Jewry Movement Advertisement
    • -- Ten Plagues
  • Ten Plagues (sephardi)
    • -- Cup #2 & Dayenu
  • In Every Generation & Second Cup (Korean)
    • Rachtzah
  • Handwashing
    • Motzi-Matzah
  • Matsot sucrées à l'orange
    • Maror
  • Charoset in Other Countries
  • Марор – Гірке зілля
    • Shulchan Oreich
  • Passover Around The World Trivia
  • Let's Eat in 20 languages
  • World's Largest Seder
    • Tzafun
  • Цафун – Ми їмо знайдений афікоман
    • Bareich
  • Bareich -bordsbönen
  • Bendigamos a el altísimo (Ladino)
    • Hallel
  • Fun Fact
  • Cup of Elijah (Korean)
    • Songs
  • Had Gadya - Igbo Jewish (Nigerian) version
  • Who Knows One - Ladino
  • Chad Gadya in Ladino
  • Liberté/Liberty by French Poet Paul Eluard
  • Traditions Tunisiennes
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