Rabbi Andrea Myers: Goodnight, New York: A Sermon on the Move

In Jerusalem I was introduced to the line from Yehudah Halevi: “My heart is in the east, and I am at the end of the west.” While Jerusalem entranced me, when I first heard Halevi’s poem, the city I thought of was New York. I had traveled all the way to the east, only to discover that my heart was still in the west. I remember wondering whether Jerusalem could ever become as special to me as New York. Jerusalem certainly has a longer history in terms of its hold on humanity; but in terms of my personal history, there was no doubt that New York had pride of place.

For me, as for many others, New York is the place where I found myself. In Halevi’s poem, the word chosen for “I” — “anokhi” in Hebrew — is somewhat unusual. There and in the Bible, it is possible to read “anokhi” as suggesting a kind of revelation, some realization or actualization of self. Jerusalem was central to my journey, but I never would have gotten there if not for New York.

Growing up, New York City was always a place of both possibility and caution. Trips into the city were an event. My family would take the Long Island Rail Road into Penn Station, then take the subway to wherever we were going; usually, down to Chinatown. Before getting on the subway, my mother would instruct me, “Be careful who you look at, because they might look at you back. Just look down at your shoes.”

As a result of this sage advice, I have vivid memories of the shoes I wore on New York subways for decades, and the memories that go with each pair.