Anat Brusilovsky
20 years ago, I taught 4 subjects to eleventh-grade classes at a Jewish school.
I didn't have ready access to the Internet, nor did I have children or a television...
So, to keep from getting bored in the evenings, I gave one class or another a test every day.
“What did the Jews carry with them throughout all 40 years of wandering in the desert?” I read the question on another sheet.
“Portable trash,” a student answered me.
I remember not knowing then whether to laugh or cry.
Today I remembered that answer and started thinking. How much we drag along behind us.
You know, Pelevin has a quote: “A person is somewhat like a train. In just the same way, they are doomed to drag behind them forever a chain of dark, frightening carriages from the past, inherited from who knows whom...”
As long as we are young and full of strength, as long as the terrain is flat and the speed is low, we don't even notice how these carriages get in our way.
But when a storm engulfs the world and us, when the road heads uphill, when we have to walk through the desert (and have no strength left), it is high time to think about portable trash. About the dreadful and rusty carriages that someone attached to us for some unknown reason. About the carriages that keep us from living, breathing, and rejoicing.
It is time to detach them and leave them in the past, to make room in our hearts and minds for something new and beautiful. For harmony, for holiness, for a Portable Temple.
“And they shall build Me a Mishkan, and I shall dwell within them.”
That is what I wish for all of you.
Lightness, harmony, joy, happiness, spring, and good health!