At Seder, we tell story of our past—and pray for hopeful future

One of the most well-known parts of the Passover Seder is the four cups of wine. Distributed throughout the Seder, we take four moments to pause and recite the blessing– borei peri hagafen .

Rabbi Tarfon, a great scholar from 2,000 years ago, approached the second cup of wine and thought, ‘This blessing needs an introduction.’

So, he wrote: Praised are you, God, who redeemed us and our ancestors . Rabbi Tarfon thanks God that God freed our ancestors, and that we are free today.

But his colleague, Rabbi Akiva, said: “Rabbi Tarfon, that’s not enough.” So, he adds a blessing that is easy to miss:

יַגִּיעֵנוּ לְמוֹעֲדִים וְלִרְגָלִים אֲחֵרִים הַבָּאִים לִקְרָאתֵנוּ לְשָׁלוֹם

God, please bring us to other holidays, and may they come and greet us in peace.

Rabbi Akiva emphasizes that of course we must acknowledge the past. But we also have a fervent prayer for the future. The Seder night tells the story of what happened to our ancestors; and yet it is equally about what we pray will be in our future.

Rabbi Akiva lived through one of the most horrific periods of persecution in our people’s history. And yet, he was the guardian of hope during that dark time.

This year at the Seder, like Rabbi Tarfon teaches us, we must look back. Many of us will sit at our Seder table and notice seats that are empty. Loved ones who have died who should be sitting with us. Family members and friends from whom we’ve been separated.

Whether in Chicago, in Israel, in Ukraine, or throughout the world, we will sing the songs and tell the Passover story, and we will long for the presence of a loved one who is not with us.

As Rabbi Tarfon teaches us, we are grateful for the present. Thank God, many of us will be able to have a Seder this year that feels closer to normal, so unlike the past two years of Passover celebrations.

But as Rabbi Akiva said, even then, it’s not enough. We have so much to make up for-time spent together, experiences put on hold, words left unsaid.

So, as we sit down at our seder tables and recite all of the familiar passages in the Haggadah, may we read this blessing in one voice:

יַגִּיעֵנוּ לְמוֹעֲדִים וְלִרְגָלִים אֲחֵרִים הַבָּאִים לִקְרָאתֵנוּ לְשָׁלוֹם

God, please bring us to other holidays, and may they come and greet us in peace.

May this seder be the beginning. May each of us be healthy. May our loved ones be healthy. May this spring and summer and year be filled with blessing and goodness. May this Passover herald a time of togetherness, freedom, possibility, and hope.

Rabbi David Russo is one of the rabbis at Anshe Emet Synagogue-and can be reached at [email protected] .