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God’s Plan

In the mid ’90s, Robin invited me to join a women’s study group at her temple. I was the only man there. The idea was to try to put a more positive spin on how women were portrayed in biblical stories. I was so blown away by how smart these ladies were, that group became my muse, my inspiration for this song, another song about Sarah, and two full length plays. I was particularly taken with the concept of midrash, reading between the lines of or adding interlineations to the often sparse and obscure writing in the bible. I included two in this song, Sarah following Abraham and Isaac and bringing the ram, and Abraham extracting from God the promise that he would give humans a shot at forgiveness in exchange for the ordeal God had put him through. Incidentally, both songs are written as if sung by a woman. That helped enormously.

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Lyrics

God’s Plan

In the calm of a summer’s night

Dimly lit by the fire’s light

I hear my husband say hineni

I see his eyes implore

And in that moment I knew that he

Is struggling hard, fighting with God  once more

I hear God’s voice on the desert breeze

Or in the stream by the olive trees

This means nothing to Abraham

Lost as he is doubt

He’s no different than any man

He needs to have every command  spelled out

Every bend in the river’s flow

Every drift in the driven snow

Every mountain every grain of sand

Every woman and every man

Will learn someday

How they fit into God’s plan

He walks off on the desert sand

Leading Isaac by the hand

And I’m thinking I too should go

And keep them both in view

Sometimes Avram’s a little slow

At figuring out what he’s supposed to do

Isaac’s bound and he looks afraid

I see the flash of a silver blade

Now I know why I brought this ram

Out to this barren hill

Quick, I say, go to Abraham

Maybe in you he’ll understand God’s will.

Every bend in the river’s flow

Every drift in the driven snow

Every mountain every grain of sand

Every woman and every man

Will learn someday

How they fit into God’s plan

Abraham doesn’t seem relieved

Fact is he’s looking a little peeved

Adonai you must realize

This time you’ve gone too far

But before you apologize

Let’s you and I talk about t’shuvah

He’s so caught up in what he’s done

He forgets to unbind his son

I free Isaac, at first he’s glad

Then his confusion grows

He looks at me and asks What’s with dad?

I shake my head and answer God only knows

Every bend in the river’s flow

Every drift in the driven snow

Every mountain every grain of sand

Every Sarah, every Abraham

Will learn someday

How they fit into God’s plan.

2018-10-29T16:46:45-04:00