My Heart Is In the East: The Story Spanish Poet Yehudah Halevi -- Rabbi YY Jacobson

[Music] oh [Music] yes [Music] Zion will you not ask after the welfare of your prisoners who seek your peace and are the remnants of your flock from West and East from north and south and when I dream of the return of your captives I am a harp for your Melodies this is the opening of perhaps the most famous poem of Rabbi Yehuda Hali or as he was known at the time in his Arabic name Abu Alan Ali the poet laurate of the Jewish people the Jew who coined that phrase I am in the west but my heart is in the East today we tell the story of RAB now for the next few hundred years there's going to be an ongoing battle between the Christians and the Muslims until the mid 1400s when Ferdinand and Isabella would marry each other and together they would ultimately defeat all of the parts of Spain that were under Islam and as I said in 1492 the last Muslim City would fall to the Christians and the entire country of Spain would become Christian now the moment the Christians arrived the fate of the Jewish people changed but not many people know that for hundreds of years there was another Jewish State nay not a Jewish State a Jewish Empire in the area today known as Russia between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea a huge territory there was a major powerful Jewish Empire known as m hak Karim the Empire of the kazars or the kazars or the Karim these were tribes very powerful tribes who at some point converted to Judaism so you'll have Kings there with the names manasha YF aadya at the height and the Pinnacle of their power they rule over much of what we call today Southern the south of Russia major parts of Ukraine Georgia usbekistan Kazakhstan parts of the Crimea mountains and this is an huge and massive and Powerful Empire of Jews that continues from the 7th Century throughout the 12th century in 740 the king converts after a few hundred years the Empire of the kesar was completely destroyed by the tartar by the Vikings jangus Khan finished it off Rudi writes a fictional novel about the conversations that the king of the Karim had with various thinkers and philosophers until he decides to become a Jew to convert to Judaism say Ali arrives to the Holy Land and I received a tradition from an old man that yudi comes to the Gates of Jerusalem he rents his garments and he bends down to kiss and prostrate himself on the earth of the holy city of yusim and he begins to sing the poem that he wrote years ago the poem with which I began the lecture Zion will you not seek the welfare of your prisoners it's a poem that every Jewish community recites on Tish and Y is singing his own poem and an Arab Horseman who's riding on his horse is filled with Venom and hatred to this Jew who is in absolute love and ecstasy as he ultimately made it to his destination kissing the Earth of Yim and he tramples him with his horse and yud dies right there kissing the Earth of singing now I have to tell you many scholars and historians laughed off this Legend sometimes history is not kind to Legends and sometimes history is very kind to a legend and this is what happened to this Legend and here we come to another chapter of Jewish history you know what I love about Jewish history is thousands of years somehow become intertwined and interconnected as they're all happening within a few weeks forward the tape recorder of History to 1896 a treasure is discovered in Cairo in Egypt I would deare to say wherever you look and find a Jewish heartbeat if you listen closely you can sense in that heartbeat the heartbeat of Yehuda Hali his love his dreams and his dedication to see the good of your chosen ones and to celebrate in your joy when you return to your early youth speedily in our days amen [Music]