Leaving and Learning by Rabbi Miriam Berger

Today's piece can be found in this week's Jewish News.

Railway stations are usually notable for where they take their passengers, but as we stood by the Nova Gorica station this week we understood that its notoriety comes not from its present but its past. Over its 117 years, the station has stood in Austria, Italy, Yugoslavia and Slovenia. It is an important symbol of identity to all those who travel through it.

When our ancestors Abraham and Sarah were commanded to lech l'cha (leave) they were told to take their identity and their beliefs to accompany them on their travels to spread the concept of monotheism.

Today, as so many of us travel around the world, we should be asking what we can learn about ourselves from what we see in the new and unfamiliar.

As a family, we enjoyed these lessons from our time in Slovenia. Exploring the extensive majesty of the vast Postojna Cave network caused us to reflect on how different time is in the hectic bustle of working life. As each drip closes the gap between stalactite and stalagmite, we know it has taken millennia to form, and that thousands of years are still needed for what feels like a tiny job.

What if we were able to stand back and look at where we have come from and where we are going with the cool calm of the caves rather than the immediate gratification needed each day in the work above ground?

The beauty of the Slap Savica waterfall reminds us that the upsets and challenges in life, the boulders and the hurdles we experience, may never leave us but we learn to forge a new path by accepting that we live with them forever. As we keep living each day, the edges are smoothed and we are enabled to keep going as a new path is forged 

As someone who seeks new meaning to the ritual of mikveh (immersion), the glacial waters of Lake Bled and Bohinj in contrast to the baking hot air temperature was a wake-up call to our souls.

Our bodies and minds experienced submerging into the cooling waters surrounded by the extreme beauty of nature and it was impossible not to feel renewed by it.

Meanwhile, the House of Illusions in Ljubljana constantly reminds us that things are not always what they first seem.

Wherever you find yourself this summer, be it far-flung or closer to home, what messages are you opening your eyes to? Don't make travel about who you already know you are, but about what it can teach you about who you want to be.