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"My Heart Is In the East" (Yehuda HaLevi) Texts Concerning Zionism: "My Heart Is In the East" by Yehuda Halevi (c. 1141) Texts Concerning Zionism: Table of Contents |"The Jewish State"|"The Iron Wall" My heart is in the east, and I in the uttermost west-- How can I find savour in food? How shall it be sweet to me?
In just a few lines, Judah Halevi expresses in the following poem his yearning for Zion and the intensity of his longing: My heart is in the east, and I in the uttermost west– How can I find savor in food? How shall it be sweet to me? How shall I render my vows and my bonds, while yet
Halevi’s poems of longing for Israel like Libi baMizrach (my heart is in the east) juxtapose love and pain, and dream and reality to express the distance between Spain and the Middle East and his desire to bridge it. He believed he would find true liberation through subservience to God’s will in Israel.
My heart is in the East, and I am at the ends of the West; How can I taste what I eat and how could it be pleasing to me? How shall I render my vows and my bonds, while yet. Zion lies beneath the fetter of Edom, and I am in the chains of Arabia? It would be easy for me to leave all the bounty of Spain --
Jul 22, 2006 · Torah Portion. Haftarah Portion. The stirring words of the medieval poet of Zion, Yehudah HaLevi, echo through each and every generation: “My heart is in the East, and I am in the far reaches of the West.” At no other time is this heartfelt cry more deeply felt than when Israel is under attack.
The following article explores his philosophical attitude toward the Land of Israel. On this topic, however, Halevi is best known for a line of poetry that expressed his intense yearning for the Holy Land: “My heart is in the East and I am at the end of the West.”
