Eli, hoshia na — the name is a cry lifted to the Holy One: “My God, please save now!”

Exile scattered a people across the earth like sparks from a broken vessel. The teaching holds that such sparks are never lost — only waiting to be gathered, raised, and returned. This register is one small act of that gathering: every place recovered, every name recalled, is a spark drawn back from the dark. “That not one name be cut off” is the same prayer in plainer words.

These names are bound to a place — the Tziyun at Cerro del Hacho. When it is built and its lights are kindled, the register and the marker will answer one another: here the names are written; there they are lit. Each living name we keep is a light held in trust until that day.

Le-Olam Vaed.

On the words this register uses for the people in it, see On the Naming.