Nomads and Wanderers – Changing and Adapting

Some of you might know that my husband, Dustin, and I have been spending a lot of our free time house hunting over the past several months. We haven’t found “the one” quite yet, but we have started gathering moving boxes and have been spending time on weekends slowly filling them with the items around our home that we have decided we can live without for the coming months, until we find ourselves settled somewhere new.

As Passover approaches, this packing and impending move seems especially relevant. As we pack to move somewhere new, we certainly won’t be baking any matza on our backs, as the Israelites did. Yet still, there is something resonant for me. Something that feels almost as if it is in our DNA to be nomads or wanderers – to constantly change and adapt.

In fact, as we go into this second year of celebrating Passover in a new and creative way, I am struck by the way we are able to so openly and readily embrace change. Last year, many of us immediately said, of course our Passover Seder will still happen! I will just see my loved ones on Zoom! This year, it almost feels like we already have our Zoom holiday traditions established. Some of them are new and adapted, yet many of them are still our long-held traditions of old – the same Seder plate; the same Haggadot complete with 4 questions, 4 sons, and 4 glasses of wine, oh, and 10 plagues; and the same Passover cake recipe for dessert. We truly are each an expert in straddling the line of embracing change while holding tight to tradition.

This year – whichever traditions you choose to embrace, the old or the new, I wish you and your family a very happy and healthy Passover; and here’s to hoping for next year in person!

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