dkatzThis video features Persian Jewish singer, Maureen Nehedar, singing an emotive melody for a moving song about Jerusalem, with lyrics by Spanish Jewish physician, poet and philosopher, Rabbi Yehuda Halevi (1075-1141), and Yemenite Jewish poet and scholar, Rabbi Zecharia al-Dhahiri (1531-1608). An English translaion of the lyrics is provided below.
Beautiful Heights
Beautiful heights, city of a great King,
From the western coast my desire burns towards thee.
Pity and tenderness burst in me, remembering
Thy former glories, thy temple now broken stones.
I wish I could fly to thee on the wings of an eagle
And mingle my tears with thy dust.
I have sought thee, love, though the King is not there
And instead of Gilead’s balm, snakes and scorpions.
Let me fall on thy broken stones and tenderly kiss them—
The taste of thy dust will be sweeter than honey to me.