At the heart of Maggid we declare: “Arami oved avi.” Resisting simplicity, this phrase can mean, “An Aramean sought to destroy my father,” or “My father was a wandering Aramean.” The Haggadah expands upon the former, recounting threat and vulnerability. Yet the latter has echoed through Jewish memory as well.

Our ancestors were sadly accustomed to wandering. Displacement endangers the body as much as it unsettles the soul. To wander is to live with uncertainty and fills the heart with questions about belonging and, most painfully, whether the Covenant still travels with us.

Before Sinai, before kingship, before the Temple, there was movement. “Lech Lecha”: Our origins are rooted not in permanence but in pathways. We leave our parent’s homes. We leave Egypt. We wander in the wilderness. Even the declaration brought with first fruits compresses our identity into a pattern of movements: wandering, descent, oppression, and redemption. While Jewish history........

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