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Article: "Meteor-Yid": Abba Kovner's Poetic Confrontation with Jewish History.
- Article from:
- Judaism
- Article date:
- January 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 American Jewish Congress. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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WHEN THE POET ABBA KOVNER CALLS HIMSELF "meteor-Yid," he claims for himself a complex identity. The enigmatic natural phenomenon, its brilliance, its heavenly source, its effect on the universe and its precarious existence are but a few of the associations which come to mind. A closer reading recalls also the earliest metaphor linking a Jew with the stars, namely, the covenantal promise of Genesis whereby the Jewish people are promised they will be as numerous as the stars in heaven. Thus, Kovner's particular variation on the original metaphor, altering the infinity and eternity of the stars to the single and momentary vision of a meteor, suggests a possible irony, if not ...
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