May 21, 2012

Hineini*

-Sam Doctors

January 24, 2011

 

 

To hide beneath the ocean wave

 

is to lose oneself to form over substance,

 

is to elude the murmuring voice

is to miss the cloud following the crossing,

is to insist on a molten calf,

is to fear the giants in the promised land,

is to ignore the stranger outside the tent,

is to seek in vain for the whirlwind’s eye,

is to forever seek the holy grail,

is to bind one’s self in the mists of time.

 

When a trembler cracks earth and hearth,

when wind uproots oak and beech,

when flames engulf city and town.

then a barely discernable Voice asks

“Eyecha**, where are you?

when you echo “Hineini, here I am”

you can see past the trembling earth,

hear beyond the fearful hurricane,

move past the pyre to a shining city,

maybe to a new place on a hill near by.

 

 

*’Hineini’ in Hebrew means ‘here I am.’ This poem was inspired by Genesis, Chapter 2, 8 – 10.

**’Eyecha' in Hebrew means ‘where are you.’

 

 

Prof. Doctors has held teaching positions for thirty-five years at the Harvard Business School, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School, the Univ. of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate Business School, the Haas School of Business at the Univ. of California, Berkeley and most recently at California State Univ., Hayward, He is the author and co-author of nine books, more than a hundred government sponsored research reports and more than fifty published articles, many in refereed journals. Prof. Doctors received his Doctorate in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School (1969) and he also holds a Doctorate in Jurisprudence from the Harvard Law School (1967) and became a member of the Massachusetts Bar in 1967. He retired from active teaching at the end of December 2004.