Before the journey

In this poem—written when Yehosef was only nine and a half years old—the young poet contemplates the heartache that accompanies traveling. He writes about the dread he feels when leaving his loved ones and wonders whether they grieve too. When he refers to himself as “second-in-command,” he recalls Genesis 41:43 and likens himself to Jacob’s son Joseph, who was sold into Egyptian slavery by his brothers but was never forgotten by his father.