Rabbi Infinity's Blog

There's so much to talk about on this one. I'm anticipating a loud KToon community buzz, sharing experiences, reactions, rebuttles, rejections, rebellions, reconciliations, rethinkings, repercussions, recapitulations and more.

The idea is actually one of the early teachings of the great kabbalist and chassidic master, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, from when he used to say short teachings before his time in Czarist prison. What's neat is the way he teaches you to objectify your feelings, saying, "That's not really me, that's just a fire burning inside."

You see, the #1 booby-trap on the path to self-mastery is self-blame. As soon as you say, "Oy! I'm so bad for feeling that way!"—you've already sentenced yourself to eternal slavery. Why? Because you've identified yourself with those feelings. You've said, "That is who I am, that is how I feel." And you have to be who you are, right?

But if you say, "Oy, it's that burning fire/dumb animal/secretion of hormones happening again!"—so now you can choose to ignore/tame/master that fire/animal/limbic response system.

After all, you are not the animal inside. You are a G_dly soul.

This episode is dedicated to all the people who write to me to kvetch about everything that's wrong in the world and who's doing it and just how bad it really is that even the rabbis and the teachers and the kabbalists fall into the pits along with everyone else. In other words, the whole world is full of dirt.

So I tell them: Imagine after 120 years down here--may the Infinite Light grant you long and luminous years-you walk through those mahogany doors into the supernal court and they ask you, "Nu? So what did you get done down there?"

And you answer, "Oh, did I find dirt! Lots of dirt! Let me tell you about it:..."

Know what they're going to answer you? 'Zakly as I did: "We sent you to a gold mine and all you can come up with is dirt?!"

In fact, the great kabbalist, Rabbi Chaim Vital, writes that his teacher, none other than The Ari, Rabbi Isaac Luria, taught that this world is lowest of all worlds, the final repository of all the mud from the higher worlds, almost all of it dark, thick shells, with only a tiny bit of the good stuff mixed in. But that good stuff! Whoa! Nothing comparable to it! Not in any of those angel worlds above and not even in any place higher!

And the real neat thing is: Once you fight with the mud to grab away the sparks of goodness it holds, the mud itself begins to shine. It shines the transcendent light, a light so intense even the highest world cannot contain it.

Hey, what are we sitting around talking for! There's gold in them thar mud piles!

Many of you are wondering exactly how Matzah Therapy works. Although the therapeutic value of MT has been well known for thousands of years, it is only due to recent research in our lab here in Unspecified Location, Planet Earth, that a plausible explanation can be described in biochemical terms.

The matzahs used in MT are produced from powdered triticum and dihydrogen monoxide. Of course, these are the essential ingredients in most breads. There are, however, several key factors in the baking process that distinguish MT from other breads. To understand the impact of these factors, we need to understand the metabolic processes that are peculiar to Feivels.

Unlike other mechanical pets, Feivels do not live by battery packs alone. Feivels are in constant need of mental input originating from the mind of their owner. This input not only directs the emotional state of your Feivel, but also serves to replenish electrical circuits. and ensure smooth function of all parts.

Another peculiarity of Feivels is that they are programmed to be a lot of fun and very challenging. To accomplish this, they require an EF (ego function). The algorithms used to generate this state are proprietary intellectual property of SecretKabbalaSociety.com and will not be discussed further in this forum. What is important to understand is that EF, although a key element in any Feivel profile, can make an awful lot of noise. When that noise level passes over a critical threshold--this is known as "Hyper-Ego Functioning"--it effectively drowns out any signals from outside. Feivel's circuits begin auto-reiterating in recursive loops, evidenced by an expanding head, heavy eyelids and all round obnoxiousness. A Feivel suffering HyperEF displays intolerance of any other conscious being occupying a similar space or performing similar functions. Eventually, productive activity grinds to a halt, to be replaced only by demands for service and attention, often accompanied by terse insults and bad jokes.

At this point, the only way to get a mind-signal into a Feivel is by dropping one straight into its I/O port (aka mouth). That's the MT matzah. The mind-signal is embedded into an MT matzah by processing all the materials manually and mindfully. At each step along the way, those handling the MT materials recite verbally that they are doing whatever they are doing, "for the sake of matzahs for mitzvahs." At Infinity Labs, even the harvesting of the MT wheat and the drawing of MT water is performed with this mindfulness state. This is also known as "handmade matzah shmurah" or "handmade shmurah matzah"--depending on who you want to impress.

MT matzahs are capable of retaining mindfulness embedded within their molecular structure because they are flat. The eukaryotic micro organisms known as saccharomyces cerevisiae attack the fermentable sugars within moist grains, releasing carbon dioxide that inflates the dough thereby negating the mindfulness state previously embedded there. MT matzahs are placed in a fired stone oven before those nasty saccharomy guys can get to work, keeping the matzahs flat and ego free.

Consuming MT matzahs on the first night of Passover is a guaranteed method to embed their ego-balancing signal in your Feivel for an entire year. Just make sure you use quality matzahs, supervised throughout their process and hand-baked for the sake of the matzah mitzvah. Follow the instructions from your Feivel manufacturer. And remember, you can always rely on Infinity Labs for the highest quality Kabbalistic solutions.

A flurry of excitement shook the KToon world last week as pundits struggled to decode the meaning behind GLT. Proposals include:

1. Getting Lost in my own Tracks
2. Genuine Lovable Talk
3. Genuine Love for Technology
4. GLT-1 is the most abundant Glial subtype of gLutamate Transporters in mutant mice (learned something new)
5. eGo (look, he got one letter right)
6. GaLuT (exile, diaspora)
7. GoLiaTh (no wonder Saul was so afraid of him)
8. the next pause to take breath (I think this has some numerical correlation somehow)
9. Go Learn Torah
10. GeLT (money)
11. Get Lost in Things
12. Ground Level Thinking
13. Depression (depressed people have difficulty with details of anagrams, etc.)
14. Gooey Liquid Technoguck
15. Great way to Lose Time thinking of stupid ways to decipher a meaningless anagram

Two skilled detectives, David in LA and Eli in Melbourne, actually determined the author's original meaning: GuiLT. But, of course, that in no way diminishes the value of all other submissions. As Jews, text is reality. Who cares about author's intentions?

Choosing a "best explanation" in the face of such an unexpected whirlwind of submissions lies far beyond my capacity. However, as we await the Passover Edition of KToons (next week), how 'bout this:

Send me your concepts, your ideas, your dreams for KToon scripts. Post them all here. Requirements are simple: They require a prop, allow for lots of action, and provide an opportunity to communicate a life-impacting truth from kabbalistic wisdom.

Note required by the lawyers: Anyone posting their ideas here agrees that what they post will lie within the public domain, excluding, of course, all elements of past and planned KabbalaToon episodes.

Okay, all you KToon fans! Now it's your turn: Explain to all of us what's GLT and why thinking about higher things is the best strategy to get out of it.

Then maybe you can also explain why GLT is an effective energy source when exploited strategically.

Best explanation wins the opportunity to collaborate on a KToon script!

Vote here: Mister Poll

But first, keep this in mind: You're not just choosing some nice little chatchka to entertain the kids for a few hours. Neither are you choosing a cute pet to integrate into the family. You're going to get this Feivel and he's going to be connected to your brain. That's right: You'll be the mind, Feivel will be the heart. You're choosing who you want to be.

Along with an easy-to-assemble Feivel in a choice of infinity-blue, kabbalah-pink or candy-turquoise, a battery recharger with a universal adapter, and a brain-to-Feivel transmission device, you'll get the training DVD that demonstrates all the mind-over-heart issues we talked about in past blogs. Basically, according to the state of your brain waves, that's what's going to be happening in Feivel. Together, you and Feivel will become one person.

Now you're asking, "Why on earth would anybody want to do that?"

So here's why: Controlled, double-blind studies in our lab have demonstrated that consistent Feivel training over a period of only three months drastically increased mind-mastery, self-confidence, concentration, emotional stability, cosmic consciousness and general enjoyment of life in 98.72% of subjects who survived to complete the term. Furthermore, before-and-after fMRI scans conclusively demonstrated permanent structural changes in the frontal cortex and basal ganglia of these subjects. It is theorized that these changes could be a major factor in offsetting ADD, OCD, PDD, GLT, NYPD and just about anything else a pediatric psychiatrist could throw at you.

Obviously, this is something that no budding Kabbalist fan would want to pass up. The question is only: Feivel Lite™ or Feivel Pro™?

Feivel Lite™ leads you to a state of ultimate mind-heart mastery, tranquility and serene higher consciousness. Your heart becomes a crystal vessel for the enlightenment of the mind. Your emotions and behavior are guided in perfect harmony to your inner vision. You gain high social status and could likely even start your own cult, if it weren't for the selflessness clause in the Feivel sales agreement.

Feivel Pro™, on the other hand, leads to an unpredictable life of incessant challenge. Setbacks, mess-ups, tantrums and burnouts are all default features of the Feivel Pro landscape. It's certainly possible to avoid serious disgrace, outrage and abomination of lasting repercussion, but only by being forever on guard. In a word, the job of the Feivel Pro master is to continually be Feivel and not be Feivel at once.

For further information on the two modes of Feivelness, please examine chapters 12–16 and 27–28 of the world's first Practical-Kabbalah-for-the-Everyman book, Sefer HaTanya by Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi.

Now here's the Big Deal: As a dedicated KToons addict, this is your once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to provide your input. Just comment below, telling us which Feivel you would rather integrate into your personality and why. Then, don't forget to register your vote at Mister Poll so we can begin mass production accordingly.

It should be noted that the Original Manufacturer seems to have had an overwhelming preference for Feivel Pro. Unless you have a better explanation for the human race.

For information on Feivel Inc. investment opportunities, please visit our corporate site.

The Kabbalah of Dips, Downs, Outs and Transformation:

They say life has its ups and downs. It's not true. Life is ups and downs.

Let's start with breathing. Pretty important for life, right? All the major classes of structural molecules in living organisms need oxygen, so you gotta breathe. You do that by creating a vacuum inside. At that point, you become weaker, more helpless. You don't want to take a punch when you're inhaling. But that's when you pull in the oxygen that your hemoglobin will carry from your lungs to every cell in your body. That's how you recharge.

For that oxygen and everything other vital substance to get around your body, your heart needs to pump. It also does this by creating a vacuum—a hydraulic vacuum—so it can pull in the old blood and pump out the new.

Then there's your neurons, firing in a harmonious rhythm conducted by the field marshall of your brain, the thalamus: positive charge—fire; negative charge—receive; marching at about 20 times per second when you're active, mellowing to a soft 10 or so when you relax.

Those aren't the only rhythms drumming away in your body and your environs. You may have noticed that even your money works this way: You spend in order to get. You invest in order to earn. Even money joins in the cosmic dance, the song of being, that resonates through every participant of existence in the universe. Everything is in constant pulse, because everything is energy and all energy oscillates in waves. There is no crest that is not preceded by a trough, no positive without first a negative; everything is constantly moving, vibrating, pulsating with the breath of life. As soon as any particle would cease this dance of life and retreat to stillness, it would disappear into the void of zero energy.

The Kabbalah describes the songs of the angels in constant "running and return." The Midrash speaks of the song each creature sings, the song by which it achieves life, those rhythms, those vibrations of life. Time itself is simply the grand pulse of the entire universe in a cycle of millennia, years, days and moments.

The Energy Problem

Why must the universe do a song and dance to earn its right to exist? Here's what the Kabbalah has to say:

Everything that exists is projected onto the four-dimensional stage of space and time by a boundless, transcendent source of energy, a.k.a. the Infinite Light. Every moment, every galaxy, every star, every critter and every subatomic particle must be sustained by that light or it will return to the void. Just like the stuff in my Isifier.

Problem is, the Infinite Light is infinite. The stuff that it's sustaining is decidedly finite. So how do you funnel infinite energy into finite stuff?

Now that I've got the interest of the Energy Commission, I'll explain the Big Problem:

The Big Problem isn't just that infinite is too big to fit into finite. It's that, from the perspective of the truly infinite, finite things simply don't exist. If you would break the membrane between the Infinite Light and the finite creation, the whole caboodle would just be gone. No fizz. No pop-bang-zap burnout. Just gone, like it never was. Because from the Infinite's perspective, this whole reality of ours was never really there to begin with.

So here's the trick: For each thing in the universe to be a something, it has to first dip back into a place where it is nothing. That's when it receives it's vitality and can become a something again. Then, returning to somethingness, it finds itself orphaned, cut off from its source. So it returns to nothingness once again, and becomes revitalized, in an endless loop.

That's how energy works: The trough of a wave is the return to nothingness, the crest is the retreat to somethingness. The more something you want to be, the more nothing you have to become first. There's just no other way to receive.

And that's how it happens in life on earth as well. If you just want to move along step by incremental step, you can be satisfied with the regular cycle of dips and bounces through life. But when it's time for you to make a major leap in life, to reach to something that was previously way out of your bounds, that's when you find yourself dipping into an all-time low. That's the crouch before the jump, the kvetch of a spring before its release, the compression of gases before a big gaboom.

How To Squeeze a Lemon

Of course, not every retreat leads to victory, just as not every seed that rots under the ground will break through and blossom. For us human being, it's a matter of choice: You could choose to remain cramped within that crouch, and eventually just collapse—or just go on as though it never happened. What a shame—such a waste of a good depression!

Or you could exploit that depression to your advantage. Be like the child on a swing, pumping her feet just as she reaches the apex of her backward climb. Go with the flow, play along with the game, take advantage of your sour state to make lemon juice, saying, "Hey I'm not the ultimate center of the universe after all. In fact, I'm pitifully far from where I really want to be."

In case you didn't know, every act of life pulls energy from somewhere; either from the supernal channels of light or from the dark matter of Otherness; from the sweet springs of Divine Life or the sewer of the cosmic parasites; in harmony with the transcendental symphony or totally out of tune in the wrong key and meter; sitting at lunch with the Master of All Things or reaching to the dregs of His refuse containers out back.

So you start asking, "Where am I connected? Look at all the stupid fantasies playing incessantly in my mental meTube. What kind of a crazy channel are they tuned into? The words that come out of me, the habits I can't break—what station am I on?"

The depression turns to bitter, seething resentment. That's good. Depression is death; bitterness is the resurrection of the dead, where Dr. Life meets Mr. Death and performs CPR. There is anger, a kind of internal fury as the soul begins to catch fire. Like the Zohar says in the name of the Dean of the Academy of the Garden of Eden, "When you want a log to catch fire, you break it up. When you want to catch fire, you also need to break yourself up, to shatter your old self and start again."

Out of the ashes, a new self emerges. That's when you hear a small voice whisper, "There's a lot of things about me that need to be jettisoned, like a lizard sheds its skin, or a crustacean abandons its shell in order to grow. Inside me lies a G_dly soul, with infinite power. If only I could let go of my self-infatuation, my nutty fantasies and dumb habits, perhaps then the light of that Divine soul could shine through."

It's in that broken state that you are able to receive, to open up to the light within you and thereby tap into the unlimited power source from which that light extends. Finally liberated from that cumbersome backpack of artificial ego, unhindered by the baggage of false self-concept, now you can really start to fly, carry-on only.

Beyond Success

Sometimes, it's time for not just a major leap, but a quantum leap. Not just from little bear to big bear, but metamorphosis, from creepy-crawly bug to beautiful butterfly. From dinky little seed to big strong oak.

This may sound crazy, but the only way to totally break out of who you are and become something entirely new is through failure. "The Tzadik," wrote Solomon the Wise, "falls and stands seven times." Nothing can get you greater success than failure.

Everything we talked about until now is part of the natural order. Failure is not within the natural order. True failure is when you mess up and dip beneath your capabilities, beneath your nature. True failure is not just being incompetent. It's when you are capable of being great and you let the world down. That's when you're having a real bad day.

But the Kabbalah reveals that failure is also part of The Plan. Because dipping below nature is the only way a being can soar beyond it. Only once broken, are we able to put the pieces back together and build something totally new.

The moon is darkest when closest to the sun.

Become small, receive and then shine.

For more on failure and transformation, see Broken & Whole.

I know, I know...it's toooo esoteric. There's a mind walking a heart that has a mind sleeping inside it...you're thinking, how many minds does this Infinity guy think I have?

Well, the news is, we all have many minds. We like to think of ourselves as single-celled protozoans unicycling through life, when in truth we're all bustling metropolises of many, many neighborhoods, businesses, associations, organized crime, street gangs and, yes, politicians—each party competing for its voice to be heard.

Your doctor might explain to you the "hormone wars" taking place between your hypothalamus, pituitary, thyroid and adrenal glands. Neurologists discuss the dynamics going on between your right brain, your left brain, your reptilian brain and your limbic stuff in the middle of it all. Freud talked about the ego, the id and the superego. The Zohar talks about three rulers of the human body: the brain, the heart and the liver. However, it works, there are many voices in there, all clamoring for attention.

Nevertheless, the two major parties in this race are the brain and the heart. Those are the only two that feel they gotta have it all—each one vying for complete and exclusive dominion over the entire body. And they've got the wiring for it too: One holds dominion over the vast network of the nervous system, the other over the vital cardiovascular system. You could say that human life is about making war or peace between these two.

I can already hear you protest, "How on earth can a heart have a mind? It's just a meat-muscle pumping blood!"

But then, is it any less wondrous that the slab of grey matter in your skull is the seat of consciousness and imagination? Even more: that hunk of skull-marrow has the amazing capacity to rewire itself according to new choices and habits made in adult life; i.e. it has free will to direct its own design.

That's why many contemporary scientists are revisiting the idea of something that oversees the brain, even though it doesn't turn up in fMRI scans. They call it the mind, and many are convinced it's not just something the brain does, but something that does things with the brain. (You can read both sides of the story in David Chalmers' anthology entitled, Philosophy of Mind.)

This is the Kabbalistic explanation as well: The brain is just a device manipulated by something called "the thinking soul" to bring thoughts into physical reality. (The thinking soul in turn acts as an interface for the G_dly soul, but we'll have to get to that another time.) It seems the hyper-complexity of the brain together with the electro-conductive tissues of which it is made grant it the special place of middle-man between the ethereal soul and the gutsy body.

Same thing with the heart—it's also made of similarly electro-conductive tissues. It's the only organ of your body that will keep running even if it were removed and placed in a saline solution (don't try this except under clinical conditions). It too serves as a kind of receiver/transmitter for another kind of soul—titled "the animal soul."

Naa--I'm getting oversimplificated. You see, the thinking soul also has some very important offices holed up within the heart. Problem is, the staff there are usually asleep; and even when awake, they have great difficulty getting their messages out due to all the racket coming from the animal soul guys in the next office. The animal soul, too, is continually using the heart to pump messages to the brain in a kind of guerilla warfare, often clogging up the entire system to the point of declaring a coup d'état. Many of us are walking around much of the time with the brain occupied by the forces of the heart and the mind in political exile.

Now, each of these souls is a full person, with a mind and emotions. The mind of the thinking soul is like a parent that gives birth to its emotions, nurses them, feeds them and dresses them up snug and warm before sending them off to work. The mind of the animal soul, on the other hand, is more like one of those parents who is scared to death that his children may throw a tantrum, constantly running after them and giving in to their every demand. So too, the animal mind is a servant to its emotions, constantly on the lookout for things to fear and things to desire, relaying the information to the emotions and then finding ways to flee, fight or grab. Along its way, it tries to wrest control of the brain from the mind, like we said before, to enlist more forces in its maneuvers.

(Sometimes I wonder if perhaps the mind of the heart might reside in the limbic system. We'll leave that up to the neuro-kabbalists.)

Look, if you're an animal, that's great. That's what being an animal is all about, and its beautiful. Problem is, you're a human being. And a human being that doesn't get control over that big beast beneath the brain-blood barrier can get darn mean and ugly. No animal can be more destructive than a human being that thinks its an animal.

Simply put: The animal soul sees itself as the beginning and end of all things. There's no future, no past, no others, no higher goals--just get what you want and get it now. The thinking soul looks out there at the world and realizes that that's stupid, saying, "I didn't make this place. There's a lot more out here than just me. There's more to life than me feeling good now." And then each one tries to convince the other that it's wrong.

So here's how the mind takes control: First, it gets inspired. That's through study, contemplation and meditation upon inspiring thoughts. Like Kabbalah. Things that really awaken this vision of a universe megazillions times greater than itself, created by the power of the Infinite Light that transcends all things and vitalizes each one. Or the thought of how this Infinite Light reaches down to each person, treating each one of us as the center of the universe, including (and especially considering) yourself, and asking, "Please can you find a way to let me into your world?" Taking that seriously can melt the coldest soul.

When the mind is absorbed 100% into these things, without distraction, in clear 20/20 focus, it gives birth to a fire of deep emotions; a sense of amazement and awe, a burning attraction and a deep thirst to become one with the Infinite Light. The lines get hot enough to wake up those sleepy-bodies in the heart department, and a wild party ensues in which the staff members of the animal soul are totally overwhelmed and caught up in all the flurry.

Classically, this is what is supposed to happen at the time of prayer and it's called spiritual ecstasy. Again, best attempted under clinical conditions. For most of us, in the privacy of our homes and synagogues, we can achieve a modest simulation. Look, as long as we get enough inspiration keep us standing on our hind legs, above the mud and muck out there. At the very least, we can imagine what it must be like to be inspired.

The hitch with this stratagem is that the animal soul plays an entirely passive part in the whole drama. Sure, it may get caught up in the excitement, but essentially, it's an alien to the experience. It figures, "Hey, what have I got to do with Infinite Light and higher visions? If it can't take mustard and ketchup, it can't be in my department." Basically, it's mind is shut down for the process, just waiting for breakfast.

So when the drama is over and it's time to sink teeth into something real, the alarm clock goes off and there goes all the lovely inspiration of the higher mind down the garburator with the tomato peels and egg shells.

There are two tricks to avoid this scenario. One is that during the time of meditation and inspiration, you engage the mind of the animal as well. Try explaining the whole Infinite Light vision in simple, down-to-earth terms. Like, "Now does it really make sense that you are actually the entire center of the universe, Mr. Animal? Come on, let's make a list of at least three things that are bigger and smarter than you..."

Or how about, "I bet you like chocolate. Chocolate is sweet. Music can be sweet, too—sweeter than chocolate. Helping someone in need can be way sweeter. Well, where does all this sweetness come from? I'll give you a hint: It starts with Infin..."

Animal souls are clever when it comes to mud, mustard and money, but not too bright with Kabbalah stuff, so you gotta go real slow and easy on them.

This ensures that the mind of the animal is engaged and actively involved in the whole inspiration process. But it still doesn't take it all the way. The real transformation takes place when you meet the animal on its own turf: in the middle of the day, when it's occupied in those things that churn its blood the most. Especially when one of those blood-churning, heart-pumping, viscerally-vibrating, real ugly and morally compromising temptations stares it seductively in the face.

That's when you need those guys down in the mind-heart department to gently remind the heart, "Hey, don't you remember the discussion we had about chocolate versus Infinite Light? You guys were really buying into the whole story, remember? We all agreed that the ultimate path was to tune into higher goals in life and stay bonded with that sweet light from Above."

"But, hey, this situation here is primed to rip you out of that connection and render you a royal sucker to the dark forces of the Other Side. This is a major test. So, how about we just keep walking calmly like nothing happened. Don't say hello, don't say goodbye, just keep walking. No one will get hurt and we'll be all the better for the experience."

That's when transformation occurs. Powerful transformation. An animal soul becomes a G_dly being, sacrificed on the altar of light and truth. It's what the Zohar is talking about when it says, "When the Other Side is put in its place, the glory of the Infinite Light rises in all the worlds."

And that is the ultimate purpose for which all things were made.

Ever have an urge to do something you know you shouldn't do? Ever felt enslaved by obsessive thoughts about a food, behavior, person or event, cartoon character?

Jeff Schwartz is a nice Jewish research prof at UCLA psychiatry and the author of two popular books, Brain Lock and The Mind and the Brain.

Jeff was researching treatment for OCD. That's Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and it ain't fun. People's brains get locked into obsessive thoughts that compel them into repetitive behavior, like washing their hands over and over because they still feel dirty, checking the doors every night 100 times because they might not be locked properly, or logging on to KabbalaToons.com every five minutes just in case a new episode might have been posted just now.

Jeff noticed something fascinating about these people: They know very well that what they are doing is ridiculous. He also noted that fMRI scans showed the limbic system in their brains doing strange things.

So Jeff showed these people those scans of their brains and said, "See, it's not you! It's this out-of-whack part of your brain making you do it!"

"Oh," said those people. "Then I don't really have to listen to a whacked-out part of my brain, do I?" And they didn't.

Jeff developed his method into simple steps. Basically, you observe this as a benign thought, rather than as an all-powerful master; you choose to ignore it; you get into some other more pleasant activity or thought instead; and you identify that obsessive kind of thinking with a part of you that's not really you. Just an out-of-whack part of the brain.

The real neat thing is, eventually that part of the brain gets unwhacked-out. The mind changes the brain.

Jeff says he got a lot of these ideas from his Buddhist meditation classes. Really, he could have just consulted his local Kabbalist. Or simply looked in the standard handbook of Jewish life known as the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, which advises, "If you have disruptive thoughts, these are from the yetser hara [i.e. evil inclination, contemporarily known as wild hormones]. Ignore them and think about something else instead, like words of Torah."

The Zohar tells us that the mind has an innate ability to ride the heart, as a rider upon a horse. But most of us are scared to death of our heart. When it starts panicking and screaming, we run fast to give it whatever it wants. (Some people do the same with their pets. Others with their two year olds.) Funny thing is, we all know our mind is so much stronger. But we reserve use of our mind for math and science, and let the heart and the hormones run everything else.

Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi gave this advice: When you are driven by one of those maddening passions, imagine that you are surrounded by a fire. Then, walk through the fire. You won't get burned, because, you see, the fire is only in your imagination. Just like that crazy obsession.

Liberate your mind from the tyranny of its pet brain/heart/hormones. Just say no to stupid urges, passions and obsessions. Then, cold-blooded, do/think/speak about something else altogether.

Like, check if there's another KabbalaToon episode out already.

Here’s the story I got that line from.

I know, everyone's going to ask, "How do you stay connected? Why does this Infinity guy have to always talk in such riddles? Why can't he give us cosmic consciousness in one minute without the confuzzling metaphors and cutesy aphorisms?"

Well, for one thing, most people don't really appreciate being told outright what to do with their lives. As in, "Who is this Infinity guy anyways that he thinks he can preach at me what I should do and what I shouldn't?" Zap, there goes my Nielsen Rating.

So I figure much better to keep the message clothed in a harmless cartoon about some commonplace activity like Hang Gliding or Xtreme Ironing. If people want to get the message, they'll get it. If not, they'll just figure this is a nice 'toon to watch with my little kids on my lap at the PC so their mother will think I'm being a good daddy and hold off on blowing up my machine.

Nevertheless, just out of that insane self-defeating impulse dormant in all of us, I'll spell things out a little this time around. If you read on, it was your choice.

Staying connected means keeping up your spiritual routine. If you wake up every day to the joys of international disaster and local homicides blasting from your flashing obnoxalarm, rush out the door spilling your hot coffee on the four-legged rug who likes sprawling in the doorway, spend your lunch hour trying to impress the same water-logged brains you spend the rest of the day with, fall asleep plugged into another dumb home video on YouTube--and catch a little spirituality "when you have the time"--that's not called staying connected. That's called drowning in the ocean.

On the other hand, staying connected doesn't mean you can't do anything else but connecting. Hey, you're in this world for a purpose--to find those pearls and other treasure. Which means you have to get involved in what's happening down here.

So to stay connected, what you need is a regular, daily routine. You don't say, "I ate yesterday, who needs food today? I breathed oxygen two minutes ago, why should I breathe again now?" So why should you say, "I got a spiritual fix at the meditation retreat last summer. Cost me $2500 bucks plus transportation, plus a real sore tush from sitting on the grass all those hours. Why do I need anything more?"

Sorry, guy. You need nourishment and fresh air for the soul every day anew. You need to get up in the morning and thank G_d for your body and soul, learn uplifting stuff, meditate, pray from the heart, watch inspiring cartoons, (okay, you can do that at lunch). You need to prime your brain in the morning so that the whole day looks different, cuz you turned on your high beam before you ventured out into the gooky deep sea of the city. And in those most vital last moments of the day, when all you dream about at night is determined, you need to review your day and check if you grabbed any pearls of truth, beauty and wisdom while you were down here. Hey, now you're breathing pure oxygen. You're connected.

There I go getting all preachy again. Genug! (that's "enough" in Kabbalistic Yiddish)

The first human being to successfully glide through the air with man-made wings was a German Jew by the name of Otto Lilienthal, the man who Wilbur Wright called, "the father of aviation."

While enjoying the beauty of the Baja California coastline, my children and I spotted two giant birds frolicking together by a cliff. "No Dad," one said, "those are not birds." We watched in jealous wonder as the two defeated gravity for at least two hours, eventually landing on the sandy beach.

I always tell my kids, "You can learn from books, but real learning is from being a nudnik." So we ran over to the people-birds to nudnik. That's how I learned the lesson of this week's episode. As they put it, "It would be nice to get lost in the flow of air, the thrill of flight. But you can't do that--if you did, it would probably be your last flight. Instead, while you glide upward, downward and all around, you're always glancing down, saying "There's my place to land. But if not there, I can always do that other spot."

The Talmud tells of four wise men who meditated upon the mystic names of G-d and entered into Paradise. One went insane, another's soul expired, a third underwent a dark transformation to become a heretic. Only one, Rabbi Akiva, "entered in peace and left in peace."

The Talmud is careful in choosing it's words, providing us not just a story but a lesson. Why was Rabbi Akiva alone able to leave in peace? Because he entered in peace. The Rebbe explained: The others entered in disharmony between their own body and soul, therefore heaven and earth were for them also in conflict. They were forced to choose one or the other, or fall into insanity. All except for Rabbi Akiva. When he entered, he looked below and said, "Where am Ii going to land?" How will this jourmey through heaven help me in my joourney on earth?"

The current record for long distance han gliding is 705 kilometers, about the distance from Toronto to NY.

Always be in control. If you're not in control of your life, someone or something else is. And that's usually not to your advantage. Because it's your life--not someone or something else's. You need control.

Now, there are two ways of being in control. One is by doing something. The other is by doing nothing. Both require lots of effort.

Doing something is for when there's some particular order and sense to what is happening around you. Okay, admittedly that doesn't happen very often in this life. But at least enough order and sense that you can figure, "If I do this, this will most likely happen, but if I do that…" So do this or that. Or something. Because if you don't do something to affect the world around you, the world around you will do something to affect you. It's your choice--either you're in control of your world, or your world is in control of you.

Then there's another situation. This is when you've done whatever makes sense, but things are going so nuts it's all out of your hands. At times there comes a point where you need to employ a new, radical and totally counter-intuitive strategy. It's called: Do nothing.

Now, by doing nothing, I don't mean hiding under your blankets with your thumb in your mouth. I mean a kind of doing nothing that takes more confidence, more focus and more wherewithal than any sort of doing something. I mean a heroic doing nothing.

Take the experience of freefall. Let's say I would try to do something about the fact that I am falling through the sky at 300 miles per hour towards the hard ground, but it's not the time to do anything. I might decide to deploy my parachute. Or I might panic, start hyperventilating and get cramps. Or maybe just start crying, call my mom on my cell phone and get her all upset, too. Anything I would do at this point to deal with the situation would be totally counter-productive and might even really mess things up real bad. My mom might not let me go sky diving ever again.

Better to stay calm, enjoy the scenery, and wait for the vital point when you need to bend your legs and land with ease.

In life, it's more than that. In life, by doing nothing, and doing it with utter calm and serenity, you are rearranging the cosmic order. You are making a statement that there is absolutely nothing to worry about because everything is entirely in the hands of your Maker, and He certainly has prepared a parachute. And by making that statement you cause it to be true.

This is an ancient tradition of the Kabbalists: that even a person was meant to go in one direction and he's not going that way, but on totally the opposite path, so much so that all the angels are screaming, "Oy gevald! He's totally off track! There's just no way to help him through this" (because angels are assigned to help people get through difficult situations, but they can't do that if he's going in in totally the wrong direction) --if he shows complete and utter confidence that the Maker of the Universe will take care of him (as long as it's not one of those paths with the big signs that say Wrong Way and he took it anyways. I mean there are limits…)--then He-Who-Knows-All-and-Runs-Everything will rearrange the entire cosmic order just to make the wrong path this guy took into the right path.

Imagine yourself a small child, walking through the park with your dad, when thunder and lightning and a sudden downpour of rain begin to strike. You don't flinch, you show no signs of fear. You look up to your dad and your face says it all: "My dad will take care of me. I have nothing to fear."

So when your dad sees that look on your face, he delivers. He picks you up, tucks you under his jacket and runs you home safe and sound. Who made your dad into such a great dad? You did--with your trust in him. As Wordsworth wrote, "The child is the father of the man."

Bet you didn't know Wordsworth was a Kabbalist.

Don't you think it's rather unfair to take this pristine G_dly soul, throw it into a bag of meat and bones, and then tell it, "Now go about life like a mentsch. Don't sin. Only do good. Remember, it's all on video."?

So I'll let you in on a secret. A Kabbalah secret. According to the master Kabbalist, the Arizal, as a soul is descending through the higher worlds, it passes through a place called, "the lower garden of Eden"--and there it picks up a practice body. The practice body is not your regular hunk of meat like we get down here. It's a lot more responsive to the soul and more flexible, too. It can handle both spiritual and physical realms, transporting smoothly from one to the other. It doesn't need food to survive and isn't so hampered by other physical limitations, such as matter (it can go through walls) and space (it can be projected to a far distance faster than the speed of light).

Nevertheless, this practice body looks and functions just like the body which the soul is scheduled to pick in the material world. So the soul gets a practice period, learning how to do things like move a body's arms to put on tefillin or light a Shabbat candle, talk nicely and share its toys, eat food so it can say a blessing before and after--all the basic Torah stuff a soul is commissioned to do down here. In other words, a hands-on rehearsal of the entire Torah before birth.

Once born, this practice body (known sometimes as the tzelem--which literally means a shadow or a form, and sometimes as the levush--meaning a suit, like in spacesuit) invests itself within the physical body. This physical body, however, comes pre-programmed with a mind of its own. A meat mind. It's interests are in matters such as eating, drinking and otherwise deriving pleasure from its surroundings. In a way, that's a good thing, since the G_dly soul isn't the slightest bit interested in those things, yet it cannot fulfill its mission without them. On the other hand, it also presents a great challenge to the soul, which will have to rein in this meat-brain animal from rolling in the mud looking for all those pleasures when it's supposed to be helping the soul with its divine mission.

So now you have a soul invested within a semi-spiritual body invested within a physical body pre-programmed for physical life. If the connections are all clean and solid, the soul will have a much easier time taking control of this body, even when it wants to run wild through the swamps of life. If, however, the practice body connection was never really tight, then life down here is going to be much more challenging.

(Some Kabbalists know how to project their semi-spiritual levush to distant places, in order to perform special missions without actually having to go there. The people who see this levush, believe they saw the Kabbalist himself, while he may have been sitting somewhere on the other side of the planet. Most of us, however, should not attempt such practices, since you never know if you'll be able to get the levush back into the body.)

Now let's get to the practical stuff: The body your child gets is a product of your DNA plus your partner's DNA, along with some mitochondrial and environmental factors. The soul is chosen Up Above. There's a schedule that says, "at time x, the world needs soul x to descend to place x and get x done."

And here's the scary part: The practice body, the levush, is formed by the thoughts and mindset of the parents, especially at the time of the child's conception. Throughout the child's life, this levush remains connected to the parents, which is why a child has a mitzvah to honor his mother and father. So, practically speaking, your purity of thought and attitude to your spouse has a very profound effect on your child's journey through life. And your child's journey has a profound effect on you.

Having your head in the clouds and your feet on the ground is really not so hard. The hard part is keeping the head and the body connected while they're stretched so far.

Esau was a guy who didn't do too well at this. He was a brilliant student of his father Isaac, but his feet weren't just on the ground--they were in the mud. Esau understood and wanted all the right things--his father's teachings, his blessings, his heritage--but his body just wouldn't let him. He was a torn man in everything he did. In fact, to this day, the head of Esau is buried together with Isaac, while his body is buried out in the field.

Esau set the precedent for another great philosopher--the one everyone blames for the mind-body disconnect. His name was René Descartes and his skull is sitting on display in the Museum of Man in Paris, while his body is lying in a church. Talk about putting Descartes before the horse!

So how do you keep the lines of communication open over such a distance? The key is a switchboard designed just for this purpose called the heart. If your mind is satisfied with gazing at the beauty up there beyond the clouds, uttering an occasional, "How nice, how transcendental!"--then it's just floating away. It's likely to get snagged on one of those tree branches or swallowed by a blue whale.

But if your mind keeps in regular dialog with the heart, as in:

"So what are you seeing up there, mind?"

"Oh, it's neat, real cool, heart!"

"Neat and cool--very nice. But how does it help me deal with the weather down here?"

And then the mind starts to describe to the heart its vision in vivid detail, until the heart, too, catches aflame with awe and amazement and pumps that inspiration out into the rest of the body to create an inspired life down here on earth.

That's when you get a well-integrated, harmonious person like Jacob, Esau's brother. His life was an exercise in applied spirituality under the most earthly circumstances. In fact, his soul and body were so well integrated that even after his last breath, his soul remained with his body. And so they lie there together in the Cave of Machpelah, as the sages say, "Jacob, our father, never died."

I'm going to tell you a secret, so listen carefully.

Actually, there are two kinds of secrets: Fake secrets. And real secrets.

Fake secrets are only secrets because someone is hiding them from you. Real secrets are the kind that don't have to be hidden from anyone, because even once you tell them, they remain a secret. Because nobody gets what you're talking about anyway.

This secret I'm going to tell you is of the second kind. Only that now that I showed you this video, maybe, just maybe, you will get what I'm talking about.

Start by thinking of the verb "to be". Think isness. How many things do you know that have that property? Do you know of anything that doesn't have isness? Even things that don't exist have isness--they have negative isness.

Take your time on this. Close your eyes and really try to feel what isness is all about. Or else you're not going to get what I'm going to tell you next.

Now think of isifyingness. Not just something sitting there and ising, but actually causing everything that is to is. The Grand Isifier.

This is the only thing that doesn't really fit into the category of isness. Everything that is, can be not is. But that which isifies doesn't work that way. It neither is nor isn't. Instead, it isifies. If you were a computer engineer, you might say it's pre-binary--not a zero, not a one, but something that generates both.

Now I have a surprise for you. Actually, if you know a little Hebrew, it shouldn't be a surprise. But it probably will be anyways.

Look at the way we write G_d in Hebrew--the four letter name that we don't pronounce.

Guess what it means. Three chances and the first two don't count.

The Isifier is actually mentioned elsewhere at Chabad.org. See:

The Adam Files

Where is G‑d?

Next week we have an even more super-awesome video about the Isifier. Come back then. Make sure you have mind insurance--in case it gets blown too far away.

There's a nice article on this very topic called Windows.

The idea really comes from one of the major kabbalah teachers of all time, Moses. Moses got stuck with this position that he really wasn't looking for of being a leader, standing, as he put it, "between you people and your G_d". But, like I said, that's not where he wanted to be. So he always tried to engineer things so that, once he made that connection, he could just step out of the way and let things happen.

For example, at Mount Sinai, Moses didn't say, "Hey, I'm going up there to see what G_d wants and I'll come back and tell you all." Instead, he arranged for a meeting between G_d and the people, so that the people themselves should have their own multi-sensory, multi-layered, hyper-kabbalistic experience. Only when the people came and said, "Moses, we can't take this anymore. It's totally blowing our minds and souls out of orbit! You go and find out what He wants and come back and tell us."--only then did Moses reluctantly act as a middle man.

So that's what a real teacher and spiritual guide is supposed to be. A teacher isn't there to tell you about some experience s/he had and now here's what you do with your life. A teacher is supposed to lead you to have your own experience, to see things in a deeper way. To connect you with your G_d--and then get out of the way.

You've probably heard that all kosher animals wear shoes. Well, actually, they're called hooves. To get into the Kosher Club, you need cloven hooves, meaning that the hoof is split in two. If that's not status enough, cloven hooves also get you into the even-toed ungulates order of mammals called Artiodactyla—along with cows, goats, sheep, deer, giraffes, antelopes, okapis and pigs.

Yes, pigs. But the pigs got booted from the Kosher Club because they don't ruminate (meaning, they don't chew their cud). Turns out that the Kosher Club has even higher standards than the Artiodactyla.

So what do the Artiodactyla have to do with Kosher Club?

Well, you see, according to the Kabbalah when we eat food, our job is to reconnect the food with its spiritual source. Non-kosher animals are those animals that are so out of touch with their angelic source that when we eat them, we're not able to re-establish that connection. Kosher animals, on the other hand, are those animals that we can reconnect--if we slaughter them properly and eat them with the proper respect and intent.

Now, every animal on earth is really a mere reflection of some angel or set of angels above. So the physical features of the animal somehow must reflect the spiritual nature of that angel. That's why the kosher animals have hooves--because a hoof means--like I said in the video--that even as you are here on this earth, you still remain a little above it. You didn't sink in all the way; you can still reconnect.

The same with everything you do: If you want to raise up your world and reconnect it to its spiritual source, you need to stay a little above it at all times. Remember that these things you do in the world to survive, that's not the real you. Get into some rituals every day to remind yourself of your true identity--a G_dly soul, here on a divine mission. Be within, but stay above.

This was inspired by a fellow Kabbalist of the Italian High Renaissance, Rabbi Yehudah Moscato. I say he was of the Italian Renaissance not just because he lived at that time, but because he really was a person of that time. He was very much into fine music, art and poetry. But he was also a very religious Jew and he gave popular lectures in the synagogue.

He compared every creature that G_d made to an instrument in a giganormous orchestra. (There is actually an ancient Midrash, "Perek Shira" that lists the song each creature sings, from the sun and the moon down to the frogs and the dogs.) But then, he says, they're not just playing a symphony, but a concerto. A concerto is when you have a soloist--such as a violinist or pianist (well, in those days, clavichord)--and he plays back and forth with the orchestra. He plays a melody or theme while they gently pluck away, and then they all come back in full strength, echoing his music.

So Rabbi Moscato said that the human being is the soloist. Each instrument plays his part, but the human being plays all the parts as one. Every human being is really playing from the same score, he says, only that some play with sensitivity and passion, while others tinker away, missing notes, chopping up phrases, totally out of tune with the composer's intent. Then, according to how each of us plays, the orchestra--the entire universe--echoes back.

When I read Rabbi Moscato, I realized that really this is the case with every instrument: All of them rely on a resonance chamber. We only see how we pluck the strings, little do we realize the waves that echo through the universe and how they come back to us.

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Yes, I know this experiment looks ridiculous. Who would imagine that letting darkness out of a bottle could effect anything? And who says darkness is something that fits in a bottle, anyways?

But, you see, it's a way of making a point: Darkness is not a thing. It's just an absence of light. Just like cold is an absence of warmth, silence is an absence of sound and zero is an absence of anything at all.

And evil is nothing more than an absence of goodness.

Now, this lesson is a very practical one. If you had a dark basement and you thought darkness was a real something, you wouldn't just screw in light bulbs. You would first start up a war with the darkness, to weaken it or chase it away. You might even be afraid to bring some light into there, since the darkness might conflict with it, or even dirty it up a little.

But since you know that darkness is no more than an absence of light, you do the wiring, install the light fixtures, bring in some light, and now you can even bring in the ping-pong table.

The same with fighting all the challenges of life. You might choose to go head on with battering ram and catapult against the obstacles holding you back in life. You might even put aside all the good things you are doing to focus your energies on a full assault against all that rotten stuff out there. Argue with the boss, criticize your spouse, tell off the kids, complain about the weather, the recycling, the traffic and everything else that needs fixing.

What a waste of energy! What you really need to do is focus even more intensely on light. Talk about whatever good people are doing and they'll do more. Praise your wife's dinner or your husband's smile. Catch the kids doing things right. Look at whatever you are doing that is good and grab more of the same. Instead of being a darkness buster, become a lamplighter--and one bright morning you'll wake up and find the darkness has dissipated away.

This is something that my dear friend, Rabbi Tzvi Freeman, has written about quite often--I suppose he must have a lot of setbacks. Or maybe he just identifies with rubber bands.

His writing on the subject first appeared in the Chabad.org daily mailing called The Daily Dose. But it's all collected in the two volumes of Bringing Heaven Down To Earth--meditations on the wisdom of the Rebbe and in The Book of Purpose.

Here are some excerpts I could think of:

Progressive Failure

There are two ways to ascend: You can step upward, leaving one foot in its place as the other moves ahead. Or you can crouch down and leap.

This is the true meaning of failure: Failure is not just a setback. Everything in life is a step forward, because everything has meaning.

So too, failure: It is the crouch before the jump, the break away from the past so that we can leap into the future.

Bouncing Up

Why does Man destroy? Why does he wreak havoc in the world?

This world was designed so that there is no progress forward without first a step backward. Night comes before day, pain before pleasure, confusion before wisdom.

But then G_d made man, who strives beyond the design of things, who yearns to leap past nature, to embrace the infinite.

Man, too, must first fall so that he can leap upward. But since his leap is beyond nature, he must first fall beneath it.

That is sin—a fall beneath nature.

And that is the power of return
—to leap beyond nature.

The River Up

When the Divine Light began its epic descent—a journey that conceived worlds lower and lower for endless worlds, condensing its unbounded state again and again into innumerable finite packages until focused to a fine, crystallized resolution—it did so with purpose: to bring forth a world of continuous ascent. Since that beginning, not a day has passed that does not transcend its yesterday.

Like a mighty river rushing to reach its ocean, no dam can hold it back, no creature can struggle against its current. Even we, its voyageurs, cannot turn back. We must only move on with the river, on in its relentless ascent to the sea.

We may appear to take a wrong turn, to lose a day in failure—it is our delusion, for we have no map to know the river's way. We see from within, but the river knows its path from Above. And to that place Above it is drawn.

We are not masters of that river— not of our ultimate destiny, not of the stops along the way, not even of the direction of our travel. We did not create the river—its flow creates us. It is the blood and soul of our world, its pulse and its very fibers.

Yet of one thing we have been granted mastery: Not of the journey, but of our role within it. How soon will we arrive? How complete? How fulfilled? Will we be the spectators? The props? Or will we be the heroes?

That is all. And that is all that counts.

Knowing you're here with a purpose certainly makes a lot more sense of life. Provides fuel to keep going, as well.

Like when you see how tough it gets to move ahead and accomplish just one good thing. If you didn't realize what's going on, you might give up pretty fast. But when you think of yourself as an agent with a mission to repair and heal the world, you say, "Hey, there's something major in the way over here! We're taking on a big one now!" After all, the more resistance, the more you must be accomplishing.

That's the idea of the sandpaper. One thing that sandpaper knows for sure--if life is going too easy, it's not accomplishing a thing.

For most of us, this is one of the greatest challenges in life: Knowing when to be tough and when to be soft. Somehow, that little needle managed to figure it all out.

It really comes down to knowing your purpose in life. At the very least, you have to know that you have a purpose. And that it has to do with this world you're stuck in.

When you keep that purpose at front-center stage in your mind, the rest of your act is set out for you. If something is standing in the way of that purpose, you gotta be tough. And if something is there to help you out, you gotta open up and let it in.

Knowing your purpose and how everything fits into that great patchwork whole isn't always cut and dry. A lot of people get really off track--and start sewing their thumbs to their fingers. That's why we have all the wise teachings of the Torah and its sages--sort of like a stitching guide. Nowadays, you can't get by without some basic Kabbalah, as well.

This is the true story of a professor of computer science by day and teacher of Kabbalah by night who had a student who made movies by day, worked out by afternoon, earned money by evening, chased after her desires by night and sometimes learned Kabbalah as well.

One evening, the Kabbalah teacher computer science professor calls up the movie producer and says, “I have a plant in my home and it is dying. You know about plants. Please