Choosing Life, Every Moment of Life

"Hashem, how great is the distress of Your creations in this world.

I thank You for sending so many people whose spiritual distress is deep.

They talk to me calmly and sincerely.

And suddenly, the distress breaks through and becomes visible.

Suddenly, there sits before me a desperate creature who does not know how to live.

And then my difficulties begin.

It is not enough to proclaim Your existence, Hashem, and try to find You in the heart of others.

I must clear the way within them that leads to You, Hashem, and for that, I must understand the human soul well.

For this, I must be an accomplished psychologist, the relations with the father and mother, childhood memories, dreams...

With everyone who comes to me, I start a cautious, probing journey.

I do not have many tools to pave the way to You within others.

But with the few tools I have, I will change and improve, slowly and with great patience.

And I thank You for the talent to read people.

Sometimes they are like a house with open doors wide.

I enter it and wander its corridors and rooms.

Every house is different from the previous one, yet all are similar, and all I want to turn into Your sanctuary, Hashem.

And I promise You, Hashem, I promise that I will try to find You a roof and shelter in as many houses as possible.

Actually, this is a strange metaphor.

I will go on a journey, to find You a roof.

So many empty houses, and I will house You in them as an honored guest!".

(From the diary of Etty Hillesum)

These words were read by my very dear student, Chaya Schindler, to summarize the school year with me,

and she said she could not find more accurate words for what we are learning in this course, "to turn hearts into Your sanctuary," "to pave within others the way to You".

In September 1943, Etty Hillesum was sent to Auschwitz, where she met her death.

Etty Hillesum was born in 1914 to an educated and assimilated Jewish family. She was licensed in law, studied psychology, and Slavic languages; her entire family perished in the Holocaust..

And she chose life every moment she was living.

Let us learn from her to live in every situation with a choice of a life full of content and meaning.

Anyone interested in deepening this study is invited to register for one of the workshops at theJewish Campus.