The Maccabaean

"Comrades, brothers, the rain is coming! The early rain is here at last!" It was Reb Jehudah singing the glad immemorial song of the Palestinian farmer.

HAS StGU 11111110 111001164 SUA Ul 116 4 astoliiilall 16111101. And the rain splashed down in great, long drops. The pall of darkness was lifted from tree and house and earth. The orange glow was dispelled. The cornet broke off in the middle of a discordant orange note. Happy human voices mingled with the rush of the rain. The voune laborers embraced each nther Th-

bilating they ran into the garden, and on their upturned tired faces the rain came down as upon mown grass. The showers that watered the earth descended upon them and revived their souls. Through the gray masses of down-pouring water, the eye caught glimpses of the blues and pinks and purples of the Palestinian air. . . .

Now it was certain—the Hadassah blossom was the harbinger of spring.

Hadassah is my name; To Israel’s land I come— From all the world I come— To build again our home. Tender and soft am I, Mother and maid and wife,— I love, I live or die To give my people life. Mystic am I, and old, Reborn with dream and zest; A triple soul I hold Locked in my teeming breast: The soul of flower and leaf, The soul of maid and queen, Of her who heals my people’s grief Who serves for times unseen.

THE MYRTLE:

I grow on Judah’s heath, Soft thing to soothe the wild! A balm of rest I breathe On Jesse’s driven child; An ever-greening shrub, I wreathe the hidden spring; About the rocks and scrub My starry arms I fling.

No lily of the vale, No rose of Sharon this: A passionate bud to pale The pale-moon with her kiss, A dark, sweet herb to heal. A fragrant leaf unfurled Whose little tender tiplets feel The sorrow of the world.

HADASSAH:

QUEEN ESTHER:

They drove my people West,They chased us North and East,But Persia let us rest,Of little peoples, least.True to a scattered race,Mute, with a grief unspent,I showed the king my face,And gave the king content.

Fit consort for a king, Fit martyr for a cause, I had small gift to bring To serve my father's laws: The beauty of a maid Bared to an alien sky, A life enslaved and much afraid, Yet brave enough to die.

THE NURSE:

I sought the welcoming West, But still my heart was set Too deep in Judah’s breast To break or to forget. From Western ease I rise Toward where my pulses yearn, To wipe my daughter’s eyes And bind her wounds that burn.

Anointed with my love,A flower, a queen, a nurse,To find my realm I roveAn alien universe.For I would give, give, give!What greater need have I?For I would live and help to live,—And if I die, I die.

Hadassah is my name;To Israel's land I come—From all the world I come—To build again our home.Tender and soft am I,Mother and maid and wife,—I love, I live or dieTo give my people life.