At first, Yehuda is a leader in a sorely lacking way,

he prominently chooses the wrong thing to say,

encouraging the brothers to throw Yosef away,

and let him die. Yehuda really goes astray.

As time goes on, Yehuda is humbled, brought down,

and then, he learns his lesson and comes around.

He does teshuva on the haughtiness he displayed,

and he finds humility, which is the lofty Torah way.

After shirking his responsibility,

he becomes what a brother’s meant to be.

He stands up for the youngest son of his dad,

sees Binyamin as a vulnerable young lad.

Another Torah brother had no interest in the role,

and that choice, on himself, on his brother, took its toll.

Kayin said to God, “You’re the watchman—not me.”

He missed the mark of brotherhood, on this, we can agree.

Miriam watched over her sibling, that’s the word that is used,

giving up hope in her brother was something she refused.

As the sister of Moshe is how she is later described,

because by her selfish interests, she was not bribed.

May we always learn from the Torah to truly care,

to be the kind to our siblings, keenly aware,

To be sensitive to their vulnerability and need,

never letting them, from us or others, be bullied.

Rabbi Neil Fleischmann, an ordained rabbi from RIETS, has taught Torah for over 30 years, primarily at The Frisch School, where he coached the award-winning poetry team. As an integral part of the Yeshiva Poetry Society, Fleischmann is a passionate advocate for the arts within the Torah world. He was named New York's Funniest Rabbi and has performed stand up comedy, as well as presenting as scholar in residence, across the city and country. His literary work includes the haiku collection In The Field, and he has contributed close to twenty poems to the Stories of Our Lives anthologies, parts 1 and 2. Currently, Fleischmann is working on a book of parsha poems that combines meaningful content with whimsical formatting. You can reach him at [email protected].