B'Chol Dor Va'Dor

This evening as I sat through my family's second seder, I took advantage of an opportunity to read different commentaries on random parts of the haggadah without worrying about keeping up with the relatively fast pace of the seder. Tonight I was particularly interested in the end of magid when we recite that in every generation we must feel like we are the ones coming out of Egypt. This morning before musaf Rabbi Samuels connected this "dor va'dor" to the one in "vehi she'amdah" about in every generation there being an enemy that rises up against us. Sam (aka my brother) passed over his haggadah and pointed to a comment made about this paragraph at the end of magid in the haggadah "Halaylah Hazeh" which works in a lot of pop culture commentary and includes interested poems and stories connecting to the parts of the haggadah. I can't remember who this comment was from, but it said that part of considering ourselves as having come out of Egypt is also keeping in mind the destination of Bnei Yisrael when they left. I can only imagine how they felt on their way out. On one hand they had witnessed fantastic miracles, but on the other hand they were tired and weak and leaving a familiar life behind. Even with the promise of Israel in their future, I doubt it was easy to trudge out of Egypt. I have just spent three weeks experiencing everything I loved and still love about my life in America, whether it be the convenient shopping or the friends and family I have here. On Wednesday I am getting on a plane back to my new home in Israel. Even though I am well aware of the great life I am starting for myself in Israel, it is hard to leave my "Egypt" as it were. The comment in the haggadah, which was written for Israelis, goes on to say that just over a hundred years ago basically nobody had a parent who was born in Israel. In this generation Israel has a vibrant population and so many people have special stories about how they or their families got there. The writer encourages participants in the seder to share their stories of making aliyah. At my seder this comment was kept between me and my brother. There are too many complications with talking about aliyah in front of my grandmother who still isn't exactly thrilled with me and my brother living in Israel now. But this is what I think about this idea from "b'chol dor va'dor." For every generation thinking about leaving Egypt will be different. We all relate to the message of Pesach in a different way. Even more so for thinking about the destination of the Jewish people. Bnei Yisrael left Egypt hanging onto a promise. I live the actualization of that promise every day. It is something I see every day right in front of me. Yesterday my friend's mother asked me what I like about living in Israel. Quite honestly I had to stop and think. My life there isn't easy, and I can't say I have really achieved happiness there. But I do get great satisfaction from knowing that making aliyah was something I planned on doing for a really long time, and last summer I did it. There are now members of this generation of my family living in Israel. The "dor ha'ba" will have a story of their own to tell at their seder.