the image of Lady Liberty’ s torch lifted in a distant harbor felt like a heartening sign that wandering might lead to dignity rather than despair. Such symbols did not replace Jerusalem. They did not dissolve longing. But they reflected an ancient conviction that light can guide a people through uncertainty toward possibility.
Each year we speak as wanderers even when we sit securely at our tables, echoed by the sentiments of The Lord of the Rings’ s author, J. R. R Tolkien: " Not all those who wander are lost."
Passover does not allow comfort to erase memory. It insists that we begin our story with migration and displacement. In doing so, it transforms vulnerability into covenantal resilience. Covenant grounds us before geography did, and its promise orients us in a way that borders never could.
We conclude the Seder with the words,“ Next year in Jerusalem.” Across centuries of wandering, we embrace that Jewish life can be characterized by perpetual motion and longing. And yet we are never without home, because Covenant and hope travel with us wherever we wander.
Rabbi Charles E. Savenor is the Executive Director of Civic Spirit. Founded in 2017, Civic Spirit provides training in civic education to Jewish, Catholic, and Christian day schools to prepare students to be informed and engaged members of American democracy. Before Civic Spirit, he worked for as the Director of Congregational Education at Park Avenue Synagogue in New York.
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