YOUR DIVINE ALGORITHM Your Focus is Your Feed
What Are You Training Your Life to Show You?
We live in a world of algorithms. Whether you’re on YouTube, Instagram, or Google, what you see is shaped by what you search for, click on, and spend time engaging with. Over time, these systems “learn” who you are based on what you seem to want. They feed you more of the same—and sometimes, they trap you in a loop of your own attention. This isn’t just a tech thing. It’s a life thing. An ancient teaching from the Talmud says: “In the way a person wants to go, they are led.” (Makkot 10b) It means: if you choose a certain path—good or bad—life (or Heaven) will help you walk it. It’s a spiritual version of the algorithm. You choose the search term; the universe gives you more of it. “Your focus is your feed. What you attend to—online or in life—becomes the world you live in and create.”
Your Thoughts Are Like Clicks
Every thought is like a mental “click.” If you dwell on fear, you’ll start noticing more reasons to be afraid. If you focus on gratitude, more beauty begins to show up. This is not magic—it’s how your brain works. Scientists call this neuroplasticity: your brain rewires itself based on what you repeat. The more you engage with a thought or behavior, the stronger those neural pathways become (Doidge, 2007; Kolb & Gibb, 2011).
Ancient Wisdom Knew This, Too
Centuries ago, Maimonides (the Rambam) taught something strikingly similar. In Hilchot De’ot 1:3, he wrote that if someone has a harmful habit—say anger or arrogance—they can train themselves out of it by behaving in the opposite way, consistently, until they find balance. Today, we’d call this behavioral rewiring. Chabad Chassidus adds an emotional dimension. In the Tanya, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi teaches that the mind should rule over the heart (Moach Shalit Al Halev, Tanya Ch. 12). That means we can choose which thoughts to focus on—even when our emotions want to pull us elsewhere.
So, What Are You Feeding?
Whether it’s your phone feed or your inner life, the same rule applies: What you engage with becomes what you see more of. If you constantly “click” on worry, comparison, or negativity, those patterns grow stronger. But if you begin—even a little—to focus on kindness, curiosity, or growth, life starts showing you more of that. This isn’t just spiritual advice—it’s also how your brain works (Gazzaley & Nobre, 2012; Yi et al., 2020).
One Small Shift
So, start small. Choose one better thought. Redirect your focus. Practice the opposite of what drags you down. The algorithm—whether digital, mental, or divine—is always listening.
Choose wisely.
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With Gratitude,
Rus Devorah
Selected Bibliography
- Doidge, N. (2007). The brain that changes itself. Viking.
- Gazzaley, A., & Nobre, A. C. (2012). Top-down modulation: Bridging selective attention and working memory.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16(2), 129–135. - Kolb, B., & Gibb, R. (2011). Brain plasticity and behaviour in the developing brain. J Can Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry, 20(4), 265–276.
- Maimonides. (n.d.). Mishneh Torah, Hilchot De’ot 1:3. Retrieved from https://www.sefaria.org
- Schneur Zalman of Liadi. (1796/2022). Tanya, Kehot Publication Society.
Yi, J., Moore, T., & D’Esposito, M. (2020). Functional MRI evidence for a cortical hierarchy of attentional control. Nature Human Behaviour, 4, 50–61.
