Kabbalah Kronicles 18 – A $300 Kabbalah Lesson
By
Uncle Zally / Zalman Velvel
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Probably not.
In this crazy world of 7 billion people, there are probably some who pray with a whole pack of dogs, maybe even wolves, surrounding them. There are probably some who even pray with their pet giraffe or elephant, and maybe one or two that share a religious experience with a holy gorilla.
My praying partner, whose legal name in Peanut, but whom I refer to as “the Nutter,” is a miniature dachshund. He is 23 or 24 inches long, depending on how far out he sticks out his nose, and weighs about 15 pounds. I use the word “about” because he didn’t like getting weighed, and jumped off the scale, twice, before I could accurately record a number.
Last week something terrible happened to the Nutter, and that is what I am writing about this week. I promise there is a deep mystical Kabbalistic meaning to this episode, illuminating the title, so bear with me.
Now I’m not saying the Nutter actually prays along with me, unless lifting his leg and anointing trees, bushes, and car tires can be categorized as praying. I just know that as soon as I make a move to my prayer shawl in the morning, Nutter is sitting by the side door, wagging his tail, waiting to accompany me as I walk around our pond and summon the Almighty. I have no idea what is going on in Nutter’s mind while I am doing this, if he has the least thought about God … and he probably likes it that way.

The Nutter ran outside to his favorite spot on the lawn, sniffed around, looking for the perfect patch of grass to anoint. Suddenly, he yelped four octaves higher than I have ever heard him yelp, and then jumped four feet higher than I have even seen him jump, arching his back like a “Slinky” toy. How he could jump so high was amazing, considering the tiny little legs that miniature dachshund has.
When the Nutter landed, he dragged himself back to the house on his front paws. His rear legs, and his whole hind quarters, looked paralyzed.
Emmy and I were shocked. What mystical act just happened in front of us?

I ran to the Nutter, picked him up, and hugged his quaking little body. I looked for the entry site of a snake bite. There wasn’t any. Was there time to drive to the “Vet?” No. Even if there was, I had no idea which anti-venom to use because we did not see any snakes.
Slowly, Peanut calmed down. When I placed him down on the ground, he walked normally for a few feet, and then sat, looking up at me. After resting a little, he got up again on all fours and followed us into the house.
The Nutter was lethargic after this experience. When I put on my prayer shawl in the morning, he did not wait by the side door to accompany me.
So I prayed alone.
After a few more days, Peanut did not touch his food dish in the morning when my wife fed him. We have buried quite a few pets during our forty years together, and a common sign of serious illness was loss of appetite.

The bill was $300.
Can you believe it?
There are people in this world that could use that $300 for non-mystical materialistic things like food and clothes, and we spent it on our little Nutter so the Vet could tell us he was getting old.
Yes, I felt we wasted our money … but I also felt greatly relieved that my little Nutter was not going to leave me any time soon … and that made the price worthwhile.

But for some reason … I do not like praying now without my little Nutter following behind me, and he is following behind me once again.
And the mystery of that is another mystery of Kabbalah … to me.
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