Paschal Offerings by Jen Stein

— Jen Stein

This year, on the seder plate

instead of the bloodied shank bone

we place a cluster of sweet grapes

which serve as a symbol of fertility,

of new life and abundance.

We choose this, life, and not death:

for before us is set life and death

the blessing and the curse.

Therefore, we choose life

that we may invite not only Elijah

but the spring into our homes,

that we may set an example

of compassion and of love

for the things of His kingdom,

the new fleeced lambs in the fields

whose nurse from their dams

while overhead the winds that pass

bring the snowstars of pollen,

spreading over the land by wind and,

soon, by bee. Proliferation of

new things to delight and teach the old.

Adonai, hu ha-Elohim,

and in Your wisdom You have given us

the Sabbath, the Pesach seder,

the oaks and the pollen, the pink crab

apple blooms that drift, the sting and the honey,

the grapes and the newborn lambs.