Texts Concerning Zionism: "My Heart Is In the East"
by Yehuda Halevi (c. 1141)
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?
How shall I render my vows and my bonds, while yet
Zion lieth beneath the fetter of Edom, and I in Arab chains?
A light thing would it seem to me to leave all the good things of Spain --
Seeing how precious in mine eyes to behold the dust of the desolate sanctuary.
Sources: Translated from the Hebrew by Nina Salaman, 1924 This edition published in 1924 by Jewish Publication Society of America, Essential Texts of Zionism