The Frog and the Alter Rebbe

My first reaction was to enjoy the hilarity of it. After a few moments, I realized that it was an allegory about life – and perhaps even the existence of all things according to the Baal ha-Tanya.

The frog, of course, is all of us. We find ourselves reaching out, again and again, for things that we can’t resist once they are in our field of vision. Failing to achieve them, we sometimes even lash out at the Hand that provides for us.

Moreover, what we jump at so often has no real substance, like the flies that intrigue our poor frog. He cannot tell the difference between virtual reality and concrete reality. Neither can we. In fact, the Alter Rebbe reminds us (Tanya, Sha’ar ha-Yichud v’-ho-Emunah, chapter 6, end) all of apparent reality is ersatz. The ultimate reality is nothing but the dvar Hashem. From the standpoint of Ein Sof, nothing exists outside of it. Only in the lower worlds does Gevurah leave its mark sufficiently to give the appearance of an external reality that is separate from Hashem, even if completely sustained by Him.

In other words, all that we call reality is a virtual reality.

Ein od milvado.

[Thanks to Dr Fred Balitzer for providing the link and the inspiration.]

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4 Responses

  1. micha says:

    What, you skipped the mandatory reference to The Matrix? <grin>

  2. concerned says:

    Please be careful when posting links through youtube. This video is set to suggest others when the clip is finished playing. Not all of the suggestions are totally kosher and I imagine many other readers would appreciate them not being suggested. I believe there may be a way to adjust the settings so that when the clip is finished playing there is just a blank screen and no other video suggestions. Thank you.

    [YA – Point well taken. If someone knows how to do this, please let us know. I didn’t notice the suggestions at the end. I did notice the title, and I looked for a way to delete that without success.]

  3. Raymond says:

    I am not sure I agree with the stated evaluation of this short video. For one thing, the person playing the video in front of the frog, has completely sadistic motives, torturing the poor frog for his own perverted pleasure. One would hope that G-d does not have similar impulses. Furthermore, G-d does expect us to take this world very seriously, or else He would not have bothered to give us the Torah with its endless, very detailed rules about how to live our lives and how to treat one another.

  4. moshe says:

    to view youtube videos without the shmutz, go to http://viewpure.com/ and paste the video in the line provided

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