Hire the Right Person for the Job – A poem for Parsha Vaetchanan

You approach, and hear all that the Lord, our God, will say, and you speak to us all that the Lord, our God, will speak to you, and we will hear and do.
          Deuteronomy 5:24

Hire the right people for the job, I say.
Your garbage disposal isn’t going to fix itself

but there’s no reason, just because you can
identify a wrench, you should go at it yourself.

Sure, you can do anything, but, at least,
don’t forget to turn off the water, or else

other problems will come along.
Hire the right people for the job, I say.

We all understand how paint works, but
I’ve spent too many hours cleaning

splotches of it off of every known surface
to claim to be the Bob Ross of home design.

Hire the right people for the job, I say.
And make sure they’re the right people.

Anyone can place an ad on Craigslist
but when they show up at your house

and then have to leave because they
just can’t figure out why the lights

in your family room no longer work
it’s disappointing.

After hearing the Loudest Voice, we hired
Moses to do our most important listening.

We asked him to tell us what was said
and we promised to do all that was spoken.

God is the loud concert and
Moses is the earplugs.

He’s the right person for the job.
He’s hired.

Rick Lupert, a poet, songleader and graphic designer, is the author of 27 books including “God Wrestler: A Poem for Every Torah Portion.”