Here we are. Here we are, gathered to celebrate the oldest continually practiced ritual in the Western world, to retell what is arguably the best known of all stories, to take part in the most widely practiced Jewish holiday. Here we are as we were last year, and as we hope to be next year. Here we are, as night descends in succession over all of the Jews of the world, with a book in front of us.

Here we are: Individuals remembering a shared past and in pursuit of a shared destiny.  The seder is a protest against despair.  The universe might appear deaf to our fears and hopes, but we are not--so we gather, and share them, and pass them down.  We have been waiting for this moment for thousands of years--more than one hundred generations of Jews have been here as we are--and we will continue to wait for it.  And we will not wait idly.