Here reminding us of the conclusion of the Passover Seder: “Next Year in Jerusalem”
When we found ourselves trapped in a never-ending cycle of “Exile and Return” we said this:
“If I forget thee Oh Jerusalem”
Now we say this:
“We have returned unto you, oh Zion”
L’Chaim OG and Yedidia Jaiat released a new collaboration, “Jerusalem.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvjy8b0vGXQ
One of the important lessons of the traditional Passover Haggadah is the idea that in each generation, it is incumbent upon each of us to see ourselves as if we individually went forth from Egypt and began an overwhelmingly timeless journey to a promised land . . .
___________
Here’s a little extra reading material by Dara Horn from the Atlantic and quite poignant
IS HOLOCAUST EDUCATION MAKING ANTI-SEMITISM WORSE?
Using dead Jews as symbols isn’t helping living ones.
Excerpt: In The Atlantic, Dara Horn observes the state of Holocaust education around the U.S., and considers its effectiveness amid an uptick in antisemitism nationwide. “The Holocaust educators I met across America were all obsessed with building empathy, a quality that relies on finding commonalities between ourselves and others. But I wondered if a more effective way to address anti-Semitism might lie in cultivating a completely different quality, one that happens to be the key to education itself: curiosity. Why use Jews as a means to teach people that we’re all the same, when the demand that Jews be just like their neighbors is exactly what embedded the mental virus of anti-Semitism in the Western mind in the first place? Why not instead encourage inquiry about the diversity, to borrow a de rigueur word, of the human experience?” [TheAtlantic]
__________
Psalm 137
עַ֥ל נַהֲר֨וֹת ׀ בָּבֶ֗ל שָׁ֣ם יָ֭שַׁבְנוּ גַּם־בָּכִ֑ינוּ בְּ֝זׇכְרֵ֗נוּ אֶת־צִיּֽוֹן׃
By the rivers of Babylon,
there we sat,
sat and wept,
as we thought of Zion.
עַֽל־עֲרָבִ֥ים בְּתוֹכָ֑הּ תָּ֝לִ֗ינוּ כִּנֹּרוֹתֵֽינוּ׃
There on the poplars
we hung up our lyres,
כִּ֤י שָׁ֨ם שְֽׁאֵל֪וּנוּ שׁוֹבֵ֡ינוּ דִּבְרֵי־שִׁ֭יר וְתוֹלָלֵ֣ינוּ שִׂמְחָ֑ה שִׁ֥ירוּ לָ֝֗נוּ מִשִּׁ֥יר צִיּֽוֹן׃
for our captors asked us there for songs,
our tormentors, for amusement:
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”
אֵ֗יךְ נָשִׁ֥יר אֶת־שִׁיר־יְהֹוָ֑ה עַ֝֗ל אַדְמַ֥ת נֵכָֽר׃
How can we sing a song of the LORD
on alien soil?
אִֽם־אֶשְׁכָּחֵ֥ךְ יְֽרוּשָׁלָ֗͏ִם תִּשְׁכַּ֥ח יְמִינִֽי׃
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand wither;
תִּדְבַּֽק־לְשׁוֹנִ֨י ׀ לְחִכִּי֮ אִם־לֹא אֶ֫זְכְּרֵ֥כִי אִם־לֹ֣א אַ֭עֲלֶה אֶת־יְרוּשָׁלַ֑͏ִם עַ֝֗ל רֹ֣אשׁ שִׂמְחָתִֽי׃
let my tongue stick to my palate
if I cease to think of you,
if I do not keep Jerusalem in memory
even at my happiest hour.
זְכֹ֤ר יְהֹוָ֨ה ׀ לִבְנֵ֬י אֱד֗וֹם אֵת֮ י֤וֹם יְֽר֫וּשָׁלָ֥͏ִם הָ֭אֹ֣מְרִים עָ֤רוּ ׀ עָ֑רוּ עַ֝֗ד הַיְס֥וֹד בָּֽהּ׃
______________________________
