Torah Behind the Tune

We’re Coming Home

Every year, Pesach falls on the same night of the week as Tisha B’Av. Our sages say this is because the two are really connected in a deep way. If someone doesn’t know the pain of being in galus, how could he celebrate and yearn for redemption? And if someone has no inkling of redemption, then what hope is there in galus? Many have a custom to eat an egg before the Seder meal, Shulchan Orech, for this reason. 

Every Seder ends with a heartfelt cry, that next year we will be in Yerushalayim. Yidden have yearned and pined for home for so many years. Underneath all the miracles and incredible love we relate at our Seder, there is a burning desire, a yearning that can’t be quenched, for Yerushalayim. And after all is said and done, it boils down to: this was beautiful. Let’s do this next year at home. 

The song One Place cuts through all the noise—the politics surrounding our beloved Yerushalayim, the confusion we face, and even the comforts of galus. Deep inside every Yid, there is only one place they long to be. And that’s home. 

So what do we do if we are so far away? A holy Yid once said, “There is one thing Yidden in Chutz La’aretz have over Yidden in Yerushalayim. And that’s yearning for Yerushalayim.” A Yid who lives in Yerushalayim can sometimes get distracted, or think he’s already home. But a Yid in America, or Canada, or Spain, knows full well he has quite a distance to go, and he yearns every day to go home. 

The Tzaddik Rav Itche Meir Morgenstern explains that really Yerushalayim is a state of mind. Obviously the best place to live in this mindset is in Yerushalayim itself. But a Yid can access Yerushalayim wherever he is. It’s that place of emunah, that place of seeing Hashem’s hand in everything, that place of appreciating the small holy steps we take to get close to Yerushalayim. 

There is an old Chassishe ma’aseh. During one of the many wars in Europe, a Yid was found hiking a strategic hill in the midst of a battlefield. When he reached the top he said to his friend, “Can’t you see it?” His friend replied, “See what?” “Can’t you see Yerushalayim? Can’t you see it clearly from right here?”

We can see Yerushalayim from everywhere. We can yearn for Yerushalayim from everywhere. And this Pesach, may we be zoche to finally go to the One Place we call home. 

Song Name

One Place

singer Name
Moshe Auslander

lyrics

There is only one place,

in the world,

where my heart is.

There is only one place,

in the world,

where my soul is.

There is only one place,

in the world,

where my neshamah is.

Libi Bamizrach.

There is one place we all, 
wanna go.

There is one place we call home.

Together soon we’re gonna go.

Soon we’re going home.