Many cartoons are associated with a product or brand, but few come close to the association of Cocoa Pebbles with the Flintstones. The Flintstones were part of the Pebbles brand from its first launch in 1971, and have remained so every since.
The cool thing about Judaism is that it's not just in the books, but everywhere. Everything we see can be synced with, connected to and learned from in our life-long Jewish experience. Sometimes the connection is easy to find, sometimes harder, but a lesson is always there.
When it comes to The Flintstones, the Jewish/Torah connection is actually quite profound. A basic Jewish axiom is that the world was created by G‑d. Everything in the universe has a spiritual source and predecessor, which G‑d first created before further morphing it into a physical creation (e.g. the sweetness in an apple derives from the spiritual power of sweetness etc.).
The example most often used in the Kabbalah to describe the symbiotic relationship between a physical creation and its spiritual source, is a fire burning on a coal. Just as the fire begins inside the coal, then comes out into the open, so too does every creation begin in a spiritual form, then transform into something physical.
The metaphor of fire and coal is prevalent not just in creation, but throughout life. The way we feel about things, the way we react to things, the way we treat others and so much more, all come from somewhere deep inside us. If someone smiled at us, we'll likely pass that smile on (sometimes years later!), and the same with negative experiences.
What happens, however, if at any given time we feel only the negativity someone 'passed on to us', and don't feel any positive energy to pay forward to others?
Now it's time for Fred and the rest of the Flintstones to take over. Like coal, Fred Flinstone's namesake - an actual flint stone - can also produce fire. But in a very different way. While coal can have a fire rise from it only if there already was a fire within it, a flint stone can produce fire even after sitting in a bucket of water for twenty four hours. It's potential to make fire is embedded so deeply within it that - unlike coal - it can never be taken away.
By the same token, as it's so deeply embedded within it it takes more effort to bring the fire out. While a coal with a fire burning within simply needs to be blown upon to bring its fire out, a flint stone needs to be struck with force to produce a spark.
Within each one of us there's a flint stone as well. Like a flint, it too contains a spark - a G‑dly, holy spark (ניצוץ א-לוקה). It's our fundamental, unshakeable connection with G‑d, goodness and positivity that can never be diminished. Like a flint, it takes effort to bring it out into the open, but it's always there.
Every Mitzvah and every minute of Torah study is a way to access that inner spark. Above all, the best way to access this spark-in-a-flint-stone, is through selflessly caring for others. While other Mitzvah are inherently amazing but can be misused (like studying Torah to feel superior to others), caring for others can never go wrong. Consistently, genuinely, caring for, giving to, and sharing with others is the Torah's most highly recommended (although sometimes the hardest) method of accessing our inner spark.
Rabbi Avrohom