Juda Halevi
vers 1075-vers 1141 12th century
The longing for a place one may never see, which orients everything else.
Who was Juda Halevi?
A Jewish physician and poet of Castile and then Cordoba, he wrote wedding songs, elegies, poems of prayer still sung in synagogues, and a philosophical dialogue, the Kuzari. Growing old, he left everything and took ship for Jerusalem; his trail is lost soon after he reached Egypt. His poems of departure are among the most piercing in the Hebrew language.
In their own words
O Lord, where shall I find Thee? All-hidden and exalted is Thy place.
My heart is in the East, and I in the uttermost West.
Longing I sought Thy presence, Lord, with my whole heart did I call and pray, and going out toward Thee, I found Thee coming to me on the way.