In the Kabbalah, the forces of darkness and evil are called “shells” and “husks.” Which means that they are not inherently bad, they’re meant simply to protect the fruit. It’s just when we humans confuse the fruit with the husk and vice-versa that we cause them to become truly evil.
With some fruits, like dates, figs, grapes and pears, the peel is just as edible as the fruit itself. Other fruits, like bananas, oranges and grapefruits, have a peel that’s easily removed. But some, like coconuts, require real effort to crack.
So too in life: There are things we do that are all good, like mitzvahs. Other things are permissible, but you can find a way to make a mitzvah out of it. Then there are major challenges that put everything you believe to the test. But when you crack the nut and break through the test, you find yourself lifted higher, way beyond where you started off. Those are the best fruits of life.
Husks I am reminded today, since I wrote about departed pets and we recently lost our husky, our blue eyed rescue dog, a dog that was so filled with childhood, loving as he did, squeaky toys. What does this have to do with this video? Perhaps more than, a word, that is a reminder as husky contains husk. I am writing down the lines endlessly a story, a story that began with my seeing the Hebrew letters strewn through the streets outside a synagogue where I studied Kabala, made entirely of coalesced rain drops. Since then words come to me. They deconstruct, and I am following a synchronous story. Why did this come to me, right after on FaceBook I published a poem and wrote about my beloved pets? I see G_d in the wings wherever I go, and I think, there is a story that surrounds all stories, that encompasses, even this.
To be heard requires being herd, and I say, if not now, then when? I ask this of G_d who is constantly providing the most astounding linguistic and other connects, which I record.