Abstract
Christine Meilicke
Jerome Rothenberg’s Gematria Poems:
The Search for and the Denial of Meaning
Jerome Rothenberg’s gematria poems constitute a new type of experimental
Jewish poetry. Traditionally, gematria (Jewish number mysticism) is employed in the
exegesis of the Torah to show mystical or hidden connections between different
words or passages. Rothenberg, however, uses this method as a generative device to
compose poetry. Exploring the possibilities of gematria to the fullest, Rothenberg
utilizes gematria in the search for meaning as well as for its denial.
In his book Gematria (1994), he creates minimalist poems whose basic
principle is the juxtaposition of words and phrases. Yet these gematria poems remain
nonsensical until the reader begins to search for some kind of coherence (in terms of
sound, theme, or number pattern). Testing our ability to make sense of incongruous
materials, Rothenberg demonstrates our need for meaning.
But Rothenberg also uses Jewish number mysticism for the opposite purpose.
In his poetry cycle “14 Stations,” gematria—a traditional method that generally
presupposes meaning—is employed to deny the possibility of meaning after the
Holocaust. The poems are overdetermined and fragmented. They seem to underscore
deconstruction. However the poet’s negativity is not motivated by philosophy but by
history. The poems are written under the shocking impact of the shoah. Yet despite
the atrocities committed in the Holocaust, Rothenberg insists on the need to write
poetry, “but a poetry that characterizes what it means to be human . . . after
Auschwitz.”