Being Unread Poem by gershon hepner

Like being unloved is being unread.
You feel quite locked up in yourself
when no one is willing to enter your bed,
and your book that’s unread on the shelf.

Like being divorced is being unsung.
You feel you’ve a voice that’s not being heard
by a partner who’s silent while you have been flung
from your home without feelings or any kind word.

Inspired by an e-mail from Moshe-Hayim Bravo:

I am getting immersed in Emil L. Fackenheim and his Opus, Mending The World. I heard about him, but to be honest, it is the first time that I read something from him. One turning point in his thinking was the reading of a small monograph of Auschwitz’ survivor Pelagia Lewinska, Twenty months in Auschwitz. She is so often quoted by commentators that I decided to read the book. Three samples on Amazon at $146 each. For my own luck, JTS library had a single one. I rushed to the library thinking that such important book would b e probably “out”, it wasn’t…When I checked it out for myself, I realized that the book has been standing for 31 years on the bookshelves…and I was the first person to read it or “check it out”. So, I read the book that almost everybody speaks about and almost no one read. About Rosenzweig, a professor of mine recommended the work of Stéphane Mosès, Système et Révélation. I tried to order it while in France but the delays were too long so I ordered a second hand copy on Amazon. When I received the book, I was shocked to discover that the book was the copy that the library of the JTS owned and was sold second hand because no one ever checked it out.

Un livre qui n’est pas lu est comme une femme qui n’est pas aimée.

11/20/09