CRE#1 on Amichai’s Poetry

God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children

Yehuda Amichai given the era he was born in and the his experience of war, often ties the
themes of his poetry to war. Furthermore given his religious background he also often ties his
poetry to God. This being said God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children is an example of this.
From my reading and analysis of the poetry, My interpretation of poem is that it revolves around
the theme of rejecting and criticizing the stereotypical perception on God.

In order to analyze this poem, one must first look into the perception of God by the Jews given
that Amichai himself a jew. Among the traits often portrayed by God in a jewish context, I will be
focusing on God being merciful as it can be linked to the poem. From the title readers expect to
see God as truly merciful because he has “pity on the kindergarten children”. In the second line
it says that he pities school children and then emphasizes on “less” with the use of the dashes.
Since often times children are associated with being innocent but the emphasis on “less” is to
highlight that children are not purely innocent. While in the third line it says there is no pity for
adults possibly due to their corruption into evil and sin. These lines contradicts the idea of a
merciful God, because his mercy is limited to the children and yet the emphasis on “less” in the
second line furthermore shows that there he is not completely merciful to them. In the first
stanza it shows that God discriminates with regards to his mercy on people serving as an
antithesis to the view of God as merciful.

The second stanza uses the imagery of a soldier whom God abandons, and is left to suffer in
war or battlefield as seen in the lines “and sometimes crawl on all fours” and “to reach dressing
stations, streaming with blood”. God who in Judaism is viewed as merciful, seems to be lacking
the part. There is no compassion or kindness to be found through God’s act of abandoning the
soldier. Moving to the third stanza, the poem seems to be taking a turn giving a glimmer of hope
that God maybe merciful as seen in the lines “he will have pity on those who love truly”.
Ironically, it still confines it to certain people, who must “love truly”, pointing out his mercy is not
for everyone. Moreover the way God “take care of them” is also insufficient and lacking of
mercy. By giving merely “shade”, God does not give them full protection from all types of harms.
It merely shade them from the sun, allowing them to still be vulnerable to other threats such as
disease.

Overall this poem serves as an antithesis to the stereotypical perception on God by the Jews.
This is shown by through one of the stereotypical traits of God which is merciful; which is found
to be lacking and unlike it is expected to be as God’s mercy is limited to merely certain people
such as children or “those who love”. Amichai masterfully criticizes God in this poem, in an
attempt to look through the facade created of him.

Sources on How Jews Perceived God: ​http://www.jewfaq.org/m/g-d.htm