Figuring Jerusalem: Politics and Poetics in the Sacred Center

338 Pages·2022·8.691 MB·English

by  Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi

Figuring Jerusalem

Figuring Jerusalem
Politics and Poetics in the Sacred Center
sidra dekoven ezrahi
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2022 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical
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1427 East 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637.
Published 2022
Printed in the United States of America
31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 1 2 3 4 5
isbn-1 3: 978- 0- 226- 78732-9 (cloth)
isbn-1 3: 978- 0- 226- 78746-6 (paper)
isbn-1 3: 978- 0- 226- 78763- 3 (e- book)
doi: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226787633.001.0001
The epigraph on page vii is from Leah Goldberg, Selected Poetry and Drama,
trans. Rachel Tzvia Back (New Milford, CT: Toby Press, 2005), 168– 69.
Reproduced with the permission of the translator.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ezrahi, Sidra DeKoven, author.
Title: Figuring Jerusalem : politics and poetics in the sacred center /
Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi.
Description: Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2022. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2021034620 | isbn 9780226787329 (cloth) | isbn 9780226787466
(paperback) | isbn 9780226787633 (ebook)
Subjects: lcsh: Hebrew literature—History and criticism. | Jerusalem—In literature.
Classification: lcc pj5012.j4 e97 2022 | ddc 892.409—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021034620
♾ This paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso z39.48- 1992 (Permanence of Paper).
To Bernie, who turns every journey into a homecoming

Break your bread in two,
Jerusalem, earthly and heavenly,
thorn jewels on your slopes
and your sun among the thistles.
A hundred deaths but not your mercy!
Break your bread in two:
one part for the birds of the sky
the other
for heavy feet to trample
at the crossroads.
[ . . . ]
Above my eyes
toward evening
in a city weary of wanderings
in the wayfarers’ quarter
small and trembling
wings
trace circles of despair.
A Hebron- glass- sky.
First lamp that is lit.
A swallow with no nest.
Flight that has stopped.
What now?
leah goldberg,
“Jerusalem, Earthly and Heavenly”

Contents
List of Figures xi
Note on Hebrew Transliteration xiii
Prologue “Why Jerusalem?” The Politics of Poetry 1
Introduction “This House, which is called by My Name” 12
part i Literary Archaeologies
1 “Yes, you did laugh!”: The Secret of the Akeda 29
2 “You are as majestic as Jerusalem”: The Song and the City 57
3 “Apples of gold in ornaments of silver”: Maimonides’s Guide to the
Poetic Imagination 89
part ii Agnon’s Dilemma
4 “What may this be likened to?”: Agnon and the Poetics of Space 115
5 “Every day I have regretted not having stood in the breach”:
Agnon in Jerusalem 138
part iii Amichai in the Breach
6 “He comes out of a swimming pool or the sea . . . and he laughs
and blesses”: Yehuda Amichai, Poet of the Sacred Quotidian 177
7 “Visit my tears and the east wind, which is the true
Western Wall”: Amichai in Jerusalem 192
Coda 214
Acknowledgments: Ancient Debts and Ongoing Gratitude 225
Notes 233
Bibliography 295
Index of Names 315
Index of Biblical Citations 323