Our Gemara on Amud Aleph discusses the habits of a chick-dove that does not fly, and merely hops, in that it will not stray further than line-of-sight to its nest. This has implications to determining its origin and ownership if it is found nearby.

The Torah uses a nest as a metaphor for being in Hashem’s embrace as is stated in Devarim (32:6):

הלוא־הוא אביך קנך הוא עשך ויכננך

Is not this the Father who is your nest? He Fashioned you and established you! (According to Rashi’s translation.)

Based on this, Chofetz Chaim al HaTorah remarks that one should never stray so far from Yiddishkeit that one loses line of sight, because it is much harder to find your way back to the nest.

While this might be statistically true, there are many who have strayed far from observance and came back. The draw toward the ancestral nest is powerful. 

Some families have many members who have abandoned observance and Torah life, and others remain untouched, even for generations. It’s a complicated and painful phenomenon. Different families carry legacies and burdens of how joyous and connected they felt toward Judaism, how it was expressed and general mental health. There are many factors that in hindsight are technically choices and under our control, but at the time one can be totally oblivious. Regardless, what is most important is to never give up hope that the person may return, and to always remain connected even when the dissonance from religious life is offensive and embarrassing. We too can play a part in keeping line-of-sight with the nest.