Oh, Jerusalem!

The following is the introduction I wrote to the participants in my family's seder this year:

Particularly poignant for me this year are the last words we say during our Passover seder, "B'shanah ha'ba'ah b'yerushalayim - next year in Jerusalem." These words have actual implication in my life. Next year, for the first time in 23 years - excepting the one year where I made the terrible mistake of staying in New York, [away from my family,] for seder - I will not be at this table. Rather, I will observe Passover with my classmates in Jerusalem. Literally, next year in Jerusalem.

But this concept of "next year in Jerusalem" really had me thinking pre-seder. Interestingly, the first time I could take these words literally, I began thinking about the bigger philosophical implications of saying "next year in Jerusalem," even if one might not be physically present in Israel the following year. Where is my Jerusalem, I thought. What is my Jerusalem?

Most of you sitting around this table will not be physically present in Jerusalem, Israel next year, but, perhaps, over the course of the year, you will find your own Jerusalem. What does Jerusalem mean to our people? It is our Mecca, our meeting point, our coming home, and our haven. It is a place where we live as our best selves, as the most whole Jews we can be. Do I think that has to happen in Israel? Certainly not. Perhaps, the goal of uttering these words to ourselves at the end of each seder is to remind ourselves to take the lessons of the Passover seder away from our table and carry them with us until the following year.

We were slaves in Egypt, and now we are free. Yet, how easy is it to forget that we are free - to take for granted the blessings of freedom? How often do we get so entwined in the business of our days that we enslave ourselves? And, so, we should ask - how can we live each day so that we find our own Jerusalem? How can we live each day paying tribute to the freedom that is ours?

There are others who still endure the slavery that we will retell tonight. In Darfur, genocide is obliterating a people. In the United States, those with no access to education, health insurance, and a living wage remain enslaved. Across the globe, an environment has been taken hostage by inhabitants who do not appreciate the environment they have been given - polluting the air with carbon dioxide and fossil fuel emitions. Tonight, as we quest towards our own Jerusalems - towards our own freedom, we remember those without that luxury.

B'shanah ha'ba'ah b'Yerushalayim.

Next year, in your Jerusalem.

Ken yehi ratzon.

May it be God's will.