Being in two places

An Editorial from the Jewish Advocate website.
http://www.thejewishadvocate.com/

By Mark Sokoll - Friday May 9, 2008

Almost 900 years ago, Yehuda Halevi, a Jew living in Spain wrote with much pain, “my heart is in the East (Jerusalem), I am at the end of the West.” He struggled with being torn between two places at the same time.
On this eve of the 60th anniversary of the birth of the modern State of Israel, let’s be honest with ourselves. For most Jews, for most of Jewish history we have said, “next year in Jerusalem,” without the ability, and more recently, the intention of actually getting there. East, the direction of Jerusalem from here in North America, is simply the direction of our prayers, not the aspiration of our travels. We have become too comfortable with being in two places, one of which we just do not go to very often.
We Jews are experts at remembering the past. Sometimes I think we have limited the experience of being a Jew to having vivid memories of past events at which we were not present. We carry with us memories of an earthly Jerusalem that many have never visited or have not visited for many years. In thinking back to when my grandfather was buried in Fall River, Massachusetts, dirt from Jerusalem’s Mt. of Olives was added to the grave.I