By Ella Blank

Will we be like Moses, who walked Sinai twice?

His people betrayed him, his bread fell flat,

for 40 days and nights he sat

waiting, to learn G-d's commandments for us.

The desert was hot and sand swirled like dust.

And yet, that hill was worth the price.

 

He overcame doubters who said G-d is not real.

He overcame Pharaoh and slavery's ordeal.

He rallied his people, my people, through heat.

He even split the sea, refusing defeat.

 

We learn from Moses to never give up,

to keep climbing higher, push out of the slump.

For had he not seen his hill through its climb,

Jews would have a much different storyline.

 

 

 

Will we instead be like Jacob, who worked in the field?

His mother's love from birth rained down with salt

for tears he shed when his dad chose Esau to exalt.

Jacob came back for the tricks that were played

when he stole his brother's birthright and left one day.

And yet, that hill wasn't fully revealed.

 

He begged Laban for Rachel as his wife.

He married Leah first, shaving 7 years off his life.

He got to love Rachel, with more labor and work.

He then had 12 children, leaving quite a mark.

 

We learn from Jacob that what you do comes back.

But you have a choice to flee or attack.

Live life to the fullest, no matter what you've been given.

And always check that you married the right woman.

 

Will we be like Theodor Herzl, who fought for the Holy Land?

A place for Jews to be safe from hate,

a haven in the world, the Israeli state.

Anti-semitism he faced in Austria and France,

the Dreyfus affair pushed thoughts to advance.

And yet, that hill was never completed firsthand.

 

He died 40 years before it was created.

He saw his legacy in Ben Gurion, and would have been elated.

He changed the world with his Zionist goal.

He seeded a land for Jews to control.

 

We learn from Herzl to start, even if there's no end.

Continued through death, his idea is not dead,

at Mount Herzl he rests, while his dream lives on.

In his climb we see a story cut short, finished by Gurion. 

 

Moses' hill grew when he lost people's trust.

Jacob's hill grew when he wanted love, and lost.

Herzl's hill grew when he died too young.

As my hill grows, passion burns in my lungs.

 

I can not live echoing yesterday.

My hill is growing, my journey underway.

One step at a time, push higher and higher

I will never see the top, which adds fuel to the fire.

Proud is an accumulation of my history and past,

but we are all charged to make the Jewish legacy last.

 

Marginalized groups have been pushed to the side,

But just like these Jews, they'll all make their climb.

When the hill turns to mountains, will you keep going high?

Or will you give up, stop trying to defy?