Some believe that even though we will all leave the table and go to

sleep soon, the seder is never really done. Every day, we should think of ourselves as leaving Egypt. We need to keep on fighting for freedom for others. We need to keep on thinking about ways we can feel free.

We need to keep on trying to feel connected to each other, our

families, our communities, and God. And to do this, we need to make, hold, and share our memories, person to person, generation to

generation. Memories bind us to each other and the past and give us the wisdom and the strength to embrace what's ahead.

It is customary for the last words we recite at this table to be: Next year in Jerusalem. And that's not necessarily because that's where our seder will be next year, though it could be. We might also be thinking about the idea of Jerusalem. "Jerusalem" means "city of peace and wholeness"

- wouldn't it be wonderful to live in a time and place where everything felt peaceful and whole?

Our tradition tells us that the Hebrew word Jerusalem, Yerushalayim, ends with a plural "im" because there are two Jerusalems. There is the ideal, a city of peace and wholeness that we are supposed to build, and there is the real Jerusalem, a beautiful city of gold that is also a really

hard and complicated place. That's true of our lives, too. There's what we want - what we're working toward - and there's the reality of our day-to-day, which can be more challenging than we'd like. Our job is to see ourselves in both places, and as we do, to try to bring them a

little closer together.

So whether or not we think next year will bring us to Israel, "Next year in Jerusalem" is a declaration of hope - hope that the Jewish people's ancient and ongoing story (our story!) will lead to happy and holy places in the next year and beyond.

Now, everyone, together:

לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה בִּירוּשָלָיִם.

L'Shana Haba'ah B' Yerushalayim.

Next year in Jerusalem.


haggadah Section: Commentary / Readings