Architects And Archaeologists Poem by gershon hepner

Architects And Archaeologists



Scholars can be architects who try to build
great edifices, trying to explain all things,
or archaeologists who see the earth is filled
with treasures. Each one that they can discover brings
the same delight as edifices bring to arch-
itects when they can view the building they've constructed.
Both types of scholars bring to light what had been dark,
unseen till by their worldview we have been instructed.
As a humble poet I try to conflate
both roles, my poems edifices and discov-
eries, some details small, and some I hope so great
that they'll inspire interest always, sometimes love.

I discuss David Stern's article 'Vayikra Rabbah and My Life in Midrash' in Prooftexts 21 (2001) : 23-38, in 'Illusion of the Soul.' At the end of the article Stern writes that he has come to recognize that there are two types of scholars, architects and archaeologists.

The architects wish to build huge edifices and attempt to explain everything. They want a structure that will encompass all, and they insist upon fitting everything into a cubby, if not pigeon hole. They are system builders, interested in the totality or nothing. The archaeologists, in contrast, wish to uncover and reveal what is buried or hidden; the smaller and more obscure the point, the more illuminating the discovery. For the archaeologist, it is the forgotten or overlooked detail that changes the profile of the whole, that makes us see the odd and overly familiar in a suddenly new light. The goal is not a totalizing system but a small revelation.

I dedicated this poem to Sophie Hingst before her departure to Cambridge University and Harvard, having spent over six moths in our home as a doctoral student at UCLA.

This was the comment of my son-in-law Robert Gross, an architect:

I'd like to be the architect he describes, but in this economy, I think we're uncovering tiny gems rather than huge edifices ….

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