Illustration credit: Rebecca Kerzner
יִמְצָאֵהוּ בְּאֶרֶץ מִדְבָּר
וּבְתֹהוּ יְלֵל יְשִׁמֹן
יְסֹבְבֶנְהוּ יְבוֹנְנֵהוּ
יִצְּרֶנְהוּ כְּאִישׁוֹן עֵינוֹ׃
God found them in a wilderness,
in an empty howling wasteland.
God surrounded them and watched over them,
guarded them as the pupil of God’s eye.
- Parallelism means saying the same idea twice, with different words. This pasuk contains a few examples of parallelism. What are they? Why might it be important to say the same thing twice?
- The pasuk describes the desert as “an empty howling waste.” Is this how you imagine the desert? How does this description relate to the story of Benei Yisrael being saved from Egypt and led through the desert? How does it help you understand Benei Yisrael’s experience of that story?
- What does it mean to guard someone “like the pupil of your eye”? What does this comparison tell us about God’s relationship with Benei Yisrael?
- Can you imagine being surrounded by God? What would that be like?
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