I always wondered why I had to pray east. Why should I face the closet door when I could face north to the beautiful trees in my backyard? If G-d is all over, why cant I speak to him from any direction? I discovered the answer to this question at the first sight of the Kotel on TJJ Ambassadors. This time that I saw the Western Wall, I couldn’t cry as I had the first time I had when I saw the wall 4 years before.  This time was different. My body had a yearning to stay forever. It pained me to know that this experience was temporary. This was only a 20 minute visit so I decided to make the best of it and took out my siddur and start davening. In the middle of the Shema I saw a note I had made in my siddur at home earlier that morning in New York. The thought of leaving the holy land and the wall returned to my head. This wall and land was so far from my everyday life. I was so disconnected at home in New York. I felt attached to this land, but this was a temporary holiness - a visit. Eventually I would have to go back home to daven in front of my wall that faced east in New York. I was torn between two homes. I sat down and put my hands flat on the Jerusalem stone.  I realized that it was really only a few steps back with my hands that would lead me back to my home in New York. The next time I stand in my carpeted room in Stony Brook New York I will put my hands to the ground and remember all I have to do is travel forward a few thousand miles and my hands will be touching that same Jerusalem stone, if I faced east.