We're...?

In true truth,

  We’re at once,

 Everything,

  N’ nothing.

But we're cast,

  In illusions;

Convincing us,

  We’re neither,

Everything,

  Nor nothing.

------O------

Curious as a Cat

My wife came up with a brilliant, but simple plan. For months we agonized about leaving our cat alone when going out of town to spend the upcoming Jewish Holidays with my parents. In a stroke of genius, it occurred to her to get a second cat, a kitten for our cat to “mommy”. With same species company, she’s sure not to feel abandoned in our absence.

After exploring our options at a couple of animal shelters last Sunday, by Tuesday we came home with a very friendly and adorable three month old kitten. Despite our attempts to follow the shelter’s recommendation to introduce them to each other slowly, our attempts to isolate our kitten in a separate room fell flat. She cried and cried inconsolably, until she just had to be allowed out; hence, complicating her introduction to her feline companion. The kitten made friendly overtures the older cat, only to be hissed and growled at. This continued for several days.

Then yesterday, on the Sabbath, I was in morning meditation. But it wasn’t working. The cats were too distracting. So I moved my meditation to the privacy of the bedroom. The cats just followed. So, it dawned on me that maybe I am supposed to meditate on the topic of cats.

As the meditation began my mind filled with the thought that though animals were created to play a vital role in the ecosystem, the Creator has other uses for them as well. Among them, to reincarnate souls needing to learn particular lessons. Though I do not know for sure, it makes sense to me that at least a high percentage of animals which interact with humans host human souls. Otherwise, why would such animals have a destiny around humans; unless, underneath it all, they are in some sense human themselves?

To explore what lesson souls reincarnated into cats might be here for, I started to analyze the Hebrew word for cat, חתול, pronounced “chah-tool”. Personally, unless it hits me in the face, I shy away from analyzing numerical values of letters. I just have a sense that there’s more to Jewish numerology than dry mathematical mechanics. Whatever that “more” is I do not know; though I trust that the Torah sages who used numerology very clearly understood what they were doing. 

So, my preferred method is to analyze a Hebrew word is to look to the meaning of each letter of a word. Every Hebrew letter has an actual meaning. By paying attention to letter sequencing, I attempt to build a mini-story from the these meanings. The first letter of a Hebrew word represents its goal. The middle letters represents its means. The final letter its deed, its accomplishment.

In cat, חתול, the first letter is ח, which means “life”, a cat’s goal. The middle letters are תו, which means “mark” and “connection”. A cat curiously explores my “marking” territory with body scent and then “connects” further out to explore beyond. What’s accomplished?  It’s the final letter ל, which means “learning”. Yes, the cat’s curious excursions lead to learning.

Simultaneous to this meditation, as the letters floated in my field of imagination, I observed the two cats go nose to nose for the very first time. Though I don’t necessarily know what this means in cat terms, to me it looked like a tentative kiss.

Then it dawned on me that, though I don’t know for sure, it’s possible that a person who reincarnates as a cat has not displayed sufficient curiosity in exploring the Divine in general and the Torah in particular. Therefore, s/he comes back as a cat to develop curiosity, a thirst to explore and learn. As “Perek Shira” teaches cats are noted for hunting. Hunting leads to learning. I’ve observed cats hunt in the course of their excursions, marking territory and exploring. Plus, this attribute can be employed on the human level in the sense of hunting down concepts and knowledge.

Then it dawned on me that the Holy Rabbi Zusya of Anapoli taught that a person should take everything s/he sees as a lesson in serving God. If I own cats, doesn’t this mean that I need to learn this particular lesson too? Do I too need to access and awaken my partially asleep curiosity about exploring the Divine in general and the Torah in particular? It’s the month of Elul, the month of self improvement. Shouldn’t I improve in any quality I can?

---------------------O----------------------

Events & Objects in Space-Time

According to Einstein space and time are the same fabric. It would therefore make sense for the contents to be the same too. Space contains “objects”. Time contains “events”. So if space equals time then it’s likely that “objects” and “events” equal each other too.

I picture it is as a large paper bag of groceries with distinct symbols emblazoned on either side. Let’s say that one side has a triangle and the other side has a square. As the purchaser carries his/her bag filled with groceries home, s/he meets two friends along the way; a block or two away from each other. The meeting with each friend happens on a different side of the bag. So, one sees a bag with a square and the other sees a bag with a triangle. While greeting, each friend brushes close enough to the bag to briefly glimpse inside and get a sketchy sense of its contents. Later on the two friends happen to bump into each other and share that they met their mutual friend carrying a bag of groceries. Their conversation ends up flowing into a philosophical discussion about the contents of the bag with the square verses the one with the triangle. Of course, since it’s really the same bag, the contents are the same as well. The only reason they may think that the contents are different is because they weren’t sure that they indeed saw the same bag.

Similarly, since “events” and “objects” are the contents of this “bag” called by Einstein “space-time” they should be the same as well. It’s just that since we experience space-time, a single fabric, distinctly as space and time, so the contents are experienced as separately as well. In our experience of time, the contents present themselves to us as “events”. In our experience of space, they present themselves to us as “objects”. But space and time are like two sides of the same “bag” which merely looks different from different perspectives, potentially fooling observers into thinking that they in fact saw two different “bags”.

Free choice is a very interesting topic. There are a variety of approaches to try to explain its relationship to predestination. Some approaches weigh in the Talmudic teaching that the Jewish people are not under the influence of the zodiac, when discussing this topic. However, even this phrase has a variety of understandings.

One possibility is that a zodiac sign, a particular placement of objects in space, allow for humans to behave in more than one closely related way. For example, the Jews left Egypt, during the influence of mars, the bloody planet. Joshua turned the potential bloodshed of the Jews into the blood of circumcision during a mass circumcision rite upon entering the Holy Land. The “event” which matched mars required spilling blood. However, there was a choice as to which way it occurred. In this sense the zodiac, though operative, did not entirely influence how the Jewish people handled an event. They chose to do a Mitzvah, which allowed for an alternative outcome.

There is also another possibility which does not necessarily have to contradict the first one. Perhaps, it merely points to a yet higher level of free choice. There are some who take the teaching that the zodiac does not influence the Jewish people more literally. It seems like they are of the opinion that, in a state of true holiness, one can choose to do an act of pure goodness in a way that’s not at all anticipated by astrology.

This approach carries a very interesting implication. Since the deed was not anticipated by astrology, the person actually creates an “event” for which there was no correlation among the “objects” in space. To restore balance to the space-time fabric, space needs to adjust and compensate for this by somehow changing its “objects” and/or fabric to match. This way the “event” in time has been somehow matched by equivalent changes in space, on the other side of the equation.

Of course I don’t know what change will occur among objects in space. However, if such a deed is possible to do and an unanticipated “event” occurs then the simple logic of the situation calls for such changes. If so, a Mitzvah, good deed, performed on very high levels of holiness might be able to bring changes to the physical universe; possibly an earthly extension of the Lurianic “Tikkun Olam”, cosmic repair.

------------------------O---------------------

Art Philosophy

For...

 The unsaid,

   To say,

The silence,

   To convey,

 Blank space,

   To come alive,

 Around,

   curves of ink.

It's about,

  One soul;

Flowing,

  Around,

Breathing,

  Through...

    .

A Single Fabric

Time contains,

  All events,

  

Space contains

  All objects.

Time is space,

  Space is time,

One fabric,

  A continuum.

When containers,

  Are one, identical,

Could the contents,

  Be identical too?

Can planets n’ stars,

  Be events imprinted on space,

N’ can history,

  Be objects imprinted in time’?

--------Q--------