Statement: At the end of every Passover Seder, it is customary to say the words “Next Year (literally ‘Coming Year’) in Jerusalem.”[1] These words are said in the hopes that just as our Seder commemorates the redemption of the Jews from the Egyptian exile of the past, next year, we will celebrate the ultimate redemption from our current exile in Yerushalayim.
Question: Do we have to wait till next year? Don’t we say three times daily, “for we hope for Your salvation all day long?” Why do we request "next year" in Yerushalayim? Don’t we want Moshiach now and hope for Moshiach every day? In the 13 principles of faith of the Rambam, it says, “I believe with complete faith in the coming of Moshiach... I yearn every day for his coming.”[2] It doesn’t say, I yearn for his coming next year?!! Shouldn’t we say This year in Yerushalayim?!!
Answer: To help understand a possible answer, let us learn a strange and interesting story mentioned in the Talmud[3] about Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his son, Rabbi Elazar. Rabbi Shimon once sent his son to receive a blessing from Rabbi Yonatan ben Asmai and Rabbi Yehuda. These two were sons of converts who were wise and distinguished sages. Rabbi Elazar came to them, and the two sages asked him, “What do you want here?” He said to them, “My father told me that I should come to you to receive a blessing.”
So these sages then gave Elazar a set of bizarre blessings:
- May it be HaShem's will that: You should plant seeds and not harvest them.
- You should bring in and not send out
- You should send out not bring in
- Your house be destroyed and your guesthouse inhabited and full.
- Your table should be disarranged and jumbled
- And may you not see a new year.
Rabbi Elazar returned to his father absolutely shocked: “Not only did they not bless me,” he exclaimed, “they have caused me much suffering!”
“What did they tell you?” asked Rabbi Shimon.
Rabbi Elazar repeated their words, and his father reassured him, saying, “All their words are really blessings!”
Rabbi Shimon, his father, explained:
- “May you plant seeds and not cut to gather them” means that you will be blessed to have children who will not die in your lifetime.
- “May you bring in and not send out” means that your sons will marry and your daughters-in-law will not need to be sent back to their parent's home due to any misfortune.
- “May you send out, and not bring in” means that your daughters will be sent out to marry and will not need to return home due to any misfortune.
- “May your house be destroyed and your hotel inhabited and full” means that your grave, which after 120 years is the ultimate home for the body, will not come to use (and be ruined as a result of decay and disuse). You will then live a long and full life in this world, which is comparable to a temporary dwelling place.
- “May your table be overturned” means that you will have a house blessed with many healthy children who will be busy overturning the order of things.
- “May you not see a new year” is a blessing in which the students meant your wife should not die, and as a result, you should not have to marry another woman.
Now, as to why these blessings were given in such a strange manner, different explanations are given. For example,
- These two sages said their blessings in a strange way in order to have the blessings repeated 3 times. The first time was when the sages said it. The second time was when Rabbi Elazar told his father about it, and lastly, the third time was when his father, Rabbi Shimon, replied with his explanation. Saying the words of these blessings three times creates a stronger, longer-lasting effect. As it says, “a three-stranded cord will not quickly be broken.”[4]
- They did so in order to honor Rabbi Shimon. Due to their humility, they said their blessing in such a manner that Rabbi Shimon would be the one to relate the blessing of these strange words, and thus, the father, who was the leader of the generation, was the one to bless his son—as it should be.[5]
- A blessing is more effective when it is pronounced out loud in public by more than three people.[6]
- At times, when an obvious blessing is said, a “voice of judgment” challenges the merit of the receiver of the blessing, questioning whether they truly deserve the blessing or not. The sages, therefore, disguised their blessing in a way that sounded like a curse, knowing that the prosecuting angels would not offer any resistance to these blessings and even agree and say Amein. These blessings then would be confirmed with an Amein from the prosecuting angels as well as the good Malachim.[7]
So, to return to our original question, why do we request "next year" in Yerushalayim? The above explanation of the blessing of “May you not see a new year” is a blessing in which one should not have to marry again. This is the clue we need to answer this riddle.
As a newly married person starts counting their years from the beginning of their marriage, this new year is commonly referred to as "a first year." If one is forced to remarry, it causes one to start one's life all over again and count a "new year" once more. This is why we bless a couple that they should have an “everlasting home,” a home with unbroken continuity. The “next year”—the new year for a new couple, starts from the date and time of their marriage and their commitment to build a Bayis Ne’eman—a strong and faithful Jewish home.
When Moshiach comes and helps build a true everlasting home for HaShem with the third Bais Hamikdash, we will also be privileged to start the count of a new era—a new year for all of humanity. This explains why we say “Next Year in Yerushalayim” since it will then be considered a “next year,” meaning a new year and a new time for the whole world.
Lesson: Twice a year, Jewish people have the custom to proclaim, “Next year in Yerushalayim.” We do this at the end of the Pesach Seder and also once at the end of Yom Kippur during the final portion of Neilah—the holiest prayer on the holiest day of the year. This hints at the two ways Moshiach can arrive. One is in the auspicious time designated for redemption, such as Pesach, a time of miracles. The second way is, speed up through Teshuva, such as on Yom Kippur.
But as the Tanna Shmuel says: It is enough that the mourner has endured through their mourning[8]—meaning that even without repentance, the Jewish people are worthy of redemption due to the suffering they’ve endured during their long exile. It's not just enough that we have endured our suffering but we should rise and stand as a result of our struggles and suffering.
May we be granted to see the fulfillment of the Haggadah’s words, “that HaShem deliver us from servitude to freedom, from sorrow to joy, from the sadness of mourning to Yom Tov, from deep darkness to great light, and from bondage to redemption.” May this year be a new beginning—where “we will not have to languish in exile ever again.”[9] We can then loudly and proudly announce, “Next year in Yerushalayim—we are now in the next year, a new era in Yerushalayim.”
1. When accented as “the year that has come” (called a penultimate accent) instead of at the end, its meaning changes to “The year that has come.”
2. See Rambam's 13 Principles of Faith; See his commentary Mishnah Sanhedrin, chapter 10
3. Moed Katan 9b
4. Koheles 4:12
5. Rif, Iyun Yaakov
6. Iyun Yaakov
7. Nezer Hakodesh (Yechiel Michel ben Uziel-1730, Vienna), cited in Eitz Yosef
8. Sanhedrin 97b
9. Yirmiyahu 31:1
