“It’s a great mitzvah to always be happy.” Rabbi Nachman’s deep and (deceptively) simple words give me the perfect excuse to share happy-making finds like this ridiculous app that animates your pets and has made. my. week.
See, I have this quirk/problem/tic where I talk to and for every animal I see. This habit began innocently at home with humans. Before my baby brother learned to talk, I’d talk for him. He’d grunt, I’d translate, “He wants this. He needs that.”
In time, my brother began speaking for himself, and my penchant needed a new outlet; and found one in anthropomorphizing (yes, there’s a word for this), meaning speaking for animals…all animals, but in my case, especially dog animals. For some reason I understand them more than any other four-legged friend.
What is it about a wet nose that melts my heart? Maybe it’s that dogs themselves are hearts, hearts with feet. And that opinion doesn’t belong to me alone.
The word ‘dog’ in Hebrew is Kelev כלב (KEH-lev). Looking more closely, we see:
“Keh” = כ = “like a”
“Lev” = לב = “heart”
Then “Kelev” כלב literally translates to “like a heart!” How apropos.
Examples like this got me hooked on Hebrew. The language isn’t just a language. It contains secrets and lessons; the words themselves point to and reflect the subject’s core essence.
Below, I’ve shared my Feivel Flapjack and Rocky dog voices with you. They come from the heart.
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