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?

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