0.1 Le Juif Errant

Dear סָבָּא:

Do you know the etymology of wanderlust?

/Wanderlust (n.) 1902, from German Wanderlust, literally "desire for wandering" (see wander + lust).

Dig deeper and beneath delicately parsed Old High German roots (wantalon = "walk, wander") is a curious reference: “The Wandering Jew.” It’s a myth from the middle-ages of an immortal Jew doomed to wander the Earth for the rest of his life, punishment for taunting Jesus on the way to the cross. This probably tastes of bitter irony for, while our diaspora spans continents, most Jews are not renowned world travelers—at least not by choice.

I think about this word, about how it would make you feel. I think you would want nothing more than to never have left Lithuania. To never have watched your village slaughtered. To never have broken through ice to hollow out Zemlyankas in the freezing forests of Poland. To never have urged other wandering Jews, Gypsys and gays not to hang themselves. And to never have buried those who didn’t listen.

I think you’d want nothing more than to never have wandered and, perhaps more to the point, to never have wondered, what next? Even more curious, I know all this and still vainly wish I were that ill-fated son of Abraham, cursed to wander the Earth forever. Oh, what I would see! Oh, what would you think of me?

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Unlike you, I have a choice. Because of you, I have a choice.

My spirit knows, what is ahead and what is behind is deeply intertwined – nothing is a straight line. So here is my story, סָבָּא. Here is my life, as it is, in ever widening circles. Here time is neither behind me nor ahead of me. Like you, it is all around me. Here a wandering Jew, your grandson, meets the road.

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באהבה (with love)

Noah