At the end of the Seder, at the back of the Haggadah, there are many songs and prayers. Some people skip them, some skim through them selectively, and others lovingly sing each one.
There’s one that is pretty much universal, though:
לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה בִּירוּשָלָיִם הַבְּנוּיָה – Next year, in Jerusalem rebuilt!
We are always praying for Jerusalem; maybe this is just one more of those times. It’s a staple part of our prayers; that’s what we say, so you say it.
And why not? It’s a fun song to sing with the people you love!
But maybe there’s something more to it as well.
Look around the faces at the table, and ask yourself, and perhaps challenge them to think, how much can things change in a year?
Despite the finest dreams and aspirations and perhaps a great deal of effort, the daunting challenges of daily living can seem all-consuming. People can find themselves at another birthday, the end of another year, with the painful realization that little has changed. It’s not hard for time and goals to slip away, unfulfilled, to concede to the belief that change is hard.
How much can things change in a year?
But even though change can be difficult, change is real, and you can be very sure that in far less than a year, everything can change several times over.
On a micro-scale, our lives are only ever one phone call away from going off the rails; stability, health, finances, and relationships can evaporate from one moment to the next. On a global scale, a virus, a market crash, a natural disaster, a terror attack, or a war can change the world in a matter of days.
The world has transformed quite a few times, even in recent memory; we have lived it.
How much can change in a year?
A whole lot, actually; a year is a really long time.
The forces of change do not only serve destructive purposes; they equally exist for the good. Technological breakthroughs, vaccines, peace, good news, and powerful ideas have also changed the world in a matter of days.
Who is exactly the person they were a year ago, exactly where they were a year ago, physically, emotionally, spiritually, financially, and personally?
Now, we are here – הָשַּׁתָּא הָכָא / הָשַּׁתָּא עַבְדֵי.
But next year? How much can change in a year?
In a year, defeat can turn into victory. In a year, the single can be married. In a year, the childless can become parents. In a year, the sick can heal. In a year, the business can turn around. In a year, failure can turn into success.
The whole Seder night, we spoke and sang about our belief in redemptions past. This is the moment we take a piece of the Seder with us for the rest of the year, signing off with a final affirmation that we have transformed our belief in past redemptions into the acceptance and understanding that redemption lies ahead as well.
“Next year, in Jerusalem rebuilt.”
It’s so much more than a thing we say, so much more than a fun song we sing with the people we love.
It is a self-evident truth, a fact of life, that this time next year, you can be a different person, and the world can be a different place, reshaped in ways we cannot yet imagine.
But most of all, it is a prayer.
It is an upbeat and fun prayer full of promise, hope, and belief that we sing with the people we love, that the people who have loved and supported us in failure will love and support us in triumph and success, and that we will dance together in joy.
How much can change in a year?
A year is a really long time – לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה בִּירוּשָלָיִם הַבְּנוּיָה.
Next year, in Jerusalem rebuilt!