Tzipporah Rosenberg is a Tanach lecturer and poetess living in Jerusalem. Her poems are noted for gifted allusions to verses and midrash. Jeremiah 31: (Chabad translation) 14-16: So says the Lord: A voice is heard on high, lamentation, bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, she refuses to be comforted for her children for they are gone. So says the Lord: Refrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for there is reward for your work, says the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. And there is hope for your future, says the Lord, and the children shall return to their borders. Mother Rachel 2024: Up on high is Mother Rachel: Revealing Secret signs To teach us That out of hardship, tears and hidden sorrow We will emerge strengthened Daughters and mothers And matchless women Who sound not tears, nor sighs and groanings Who sound, from on high, The voice of consolation. Shaking buds and grasses Hoping to behold A people returning to its land Sure of itself And with a mission Of priceless worth, Going on its way. Notes : The poem contains quotes and paraphrasing from Jeremiah's words, as brought above, and from Rachel's life: 1. Ramah is the place from which the prophet says Rachel's voice will be heard one day, but it also means "on high". 2. Secret signs: Rachel gave the secret signs she and Jacob had used to identify one another to her sister Leah to prevent her from being humiliated 3. "On its way" is the idiom "Eim Haderech" in Hebrew, literally, the "mother road". Rachel is said to be buried on Eim Haderech, alluding to her burial near Bethlehem and not in the Cave of the Patriarchs. Her children could thus cry at her tomb on their way to Exile. (Translation by Rochel Sylvetsky) Hebrew Original: מוֹסֶרֶת לָנוּ סִימָנִים מֻסְתָּרִים שֶׁנֵּדַע שֶׁמִּקְּשָׁיִים מִבְּכִיּוֹת וּמְחִלּוֹת נֵצֵא מְחֻזָּקוֹת כְּבָנוֹת אִמָּהוֹת וְנָשִׁים נְדִירוֹת הַמּוֹנְעוֹת קוֹל תְּלוּנָה וַאֲנָחָה וּמַשְׁמִיעוֹת בָּרָמָה קוֹל נֶחָמָה מְנַעֵר צִיץ וְחָצִיר מְיַחֵל לְהָכִיל עַם שָׁב לִגְבוּלוֹ בּוֹטֵחַ בְּעַצְמוֹ וּבִשְׁלִיחוּת רַבַּת אֵיכוּת עַל אֵם דְּרָכִים
