Burning Holy Books

Meir Wieseltier

1986

Holy books, said my friend, angry,
there’s no such thing. Books,
books: let them talk
to us about books.
It was a hot night.
  At noon light rips
through the room, and everything’s clear:
over the holy we’ll put a transparent
grid. From now on we’ll examine it
with a critical eye, we’ll see
the holy, crisscrossed through bars:
iron or a…
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Creator Bio

Meir Wieseltier

1941–2023
Meir Wieseltier was a poet, editor, essayist, and Hebrew translator. He was born in Moscow and immigrated to Israel at the age of eight. An important figure among the group known as the Tel Aviv Poets, he was a founder of the literary magazine Siman keriah. Wieseltier was poetry editor at Am Oved Publications, and he was awarded the Israel Prize in 2000.

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