The wisdom of Meir Wieseltier

Meir Wieseltier is one of Israel's foremost poets. A winner of the Bialik Prize and the Israel Prize, he has published 13 collections of poetry. In honor of the month of Elul, in which, among religious Jews, the "shofar" horn is blown each day, host Marcela Sulak read's Wieseltier's poem "Wisdom."

"The whole of my wisdom contracts to the bulk of a fly on a bright window-pane, what were mountains and vales are but a scratch on glass."

Marcela reads several other poems by Wieseltier, which tackle life's painful realities, searching for values in the midst of chaos. Wieseltier was born in Moscow in 1941, and immigrated to Israel when he was a child. He grew up in Netanya and, in 1955, moved to Tel Aviv where he has lived ever since.

Text: Poets on the Edge: An Anthology of Contemporary Hebrew Poetry, Tzipi Keller, SUNY Press 2008.

Further reading:Poetry International Rotterdam

Music:Zohar Argov - Lihiot Adam Felix Mendelssohn - Songs Without Words, Op.30 no.1 in E flat Major Ernest Bloch - From Jewish Life (Part 3) Felix Mendelssohn - Songs Without Words, Op.19 no.6 in G Minor Ernest Bloch - From Jewish Life (Part 2)