Poetry and Dwelling: From Martin Heidegger to the Songbook of the Tent Revolution in Israel

Abstract

Heidegger's assumption that humans can just naturally in a does not account for the politics of space or for the way that some humans are denied or limited in their ability be in a place, immerse in it, preserve it, and define and be defined as humans by their existence in this space. The politics of being and place is problematic not only when discussing geographical spaces but also when it comes the ability of individuals and communities to dwell in texts. This paper focuses on Heidegger's idea of as presented in Dwelling, Building, Thinking written after the housing shortage in Germany and in the late essay Poetically Man Dwells. I read these essays against the Jewish concept of dwelling in texts, which—according some scholars—developed out of a physical and not just a mental state of homeliness. This essay looks at the ways in which the Jewish idea of dwelling in texts was manifested through writings that refer the double meaning of ( bayit ) as both a home and a stanza in a poem. Recent and interesting examples of giving new life this old metaphorical use of bayit can be found in many contemporary poems including works by Dan Pagis, Almog Behar and by the social movement that brought thousands of Israeli citizens into the streets in the summer of 2011 protest the housing shortage. One of the events held in Jerusalem during this time was a poetry reading entitled Dwelling in the Homes / Stanzas of the Poem, a play on the double meaning of bayit , with the possible implication that the rising costs of housing have left the stanza as the only affordable home. The collection raises the question of the complex connections between limitations on dwelling in physical spaces and in poetic homes, a complexity that remains hidden in Heidegger's work.