#ר' יהודה הלוי

[psychologeek]

This song was written in the 11th century in Spain by the Rihal /Rabbi Yehudah Halevi

(ריה"ל - רבי יהודה הלוי):

לִבִּי בְמִזְרָח

לִבִּי בְמִזְרָח וְאָנֹכִי בְּסוֹף מַעֲרָב / אֵיךְ אֶטְעֲמָה אֵת אֲשֶׁר אֹכַל וְאֵיךְ יֶעֱרָב

אֵיכָה אֲשַׁלֵּם נְדָרַי וֶאֱסָרַי, בְּעוֹד / צִיּוֹן בְּחֶבֶל אֱדוֹם וַאֲנִי בְּכֶבֶל עֲרָב

יֵקַל בְּעֵינַי עֲזֹב כָּל טוּב סְפָרַד, כְּמוֹ / יֵקַר בְּעֵינַי רְאוֹת עַפְרוֹת דְּבִיר נֶחֱרָב

This is a rough translation, I prioritised understanding over words. Also, I'm ESL, and the og poem is in "fancy" or "higher" Hebrew.

I did try to keep the feelings, but abandoned rhymes and puns.

There's

My Heart is in the East

My heart is in the east yet I am is in the west / how will I taste what I eat and how will it be well. How can I fulfill my vows and my prohibitions, while / Zion is in the regime of Edom and I am in the shackles of Arab I'd find it easy to leave all the goodness of Spain, just as/I'd find it precious to watch the dirt of the broken Temple.

In the Poem, he speaks about the desire and longing to go back Home. In Jewish tradition/writing, "HaBayit" (the house/home) usually refers to "Beyt HaMikdash" (lit. House of the Hollying). But also to Eretz Israel (land of Israel).

This poem was written during the first crusade. "Edom" probably means the Christians (crusaders), and "Arab" means muslims*.)

(*anyone who's gonna deny Muslim/arab/ottoman imperialism, please read about it first.)

even if you don't conflate judaism with zionism\ think all jews are zionist etc and you really are only opposing zionism and not jews and you do that without perpetuating antisemitic tropes you HAVE to understand that to most jews, zionism is just a new word to describe a thing we've been doing for centuries. ideologically, zionism is a lot of things, but most jews i know agree that its a jewish ideology made by jews for jews based on values that have been key parts of judaism for centuries. jews didn't suddenly decide they wanted to colonize palestine when the term zionism was coined: some of the most famous jewish poetry, art and literature is about missing eretz yisrael and jerusalem. we have entire holydays centered around the plants growing in israel. jerusalem is mentioned in weddings and most major holidays. there are many, many ways to be against zionism and not be antisemitic, and that is because jews very rarely agree with each other. there is religious antizionism, antizionism specifically targeted at the zionist political movement, leftist antizionism, all sorts. but as a goy, you just CAN'T claim zionism is just judaism's evil step cousin that has nothing to do with judaism and is just here to be evil. or even worst "conflating zionism and judaism is antisemitic". ma'am your name is haley you are a white xtian 17 year old from california who only ever talked to one (1) jew in your entire life. that jew was a JVP member. you are not an expert on judaism and what is the "correct way" for thousands years old jewish ideas to be translated into modern political movements. you don't get to say weather zionism is a part of judaism or not, and you absolutely DON'T get to call jews nazis for thinking it is. shut up and drink your double mocha frappuccino you didn't buy from starbucks bc you think thats how your gonna end the occupation and leave jewish people alone. we have enough to deal with even without you deciding if we earn our right to live or not based on our relationship with a major aspect of our culture.