OK, this is pretty esoteric, but was a specific request by Rabbi G.
Published on www.kabbalah.com in 2002.

Self defense and the spirit:

Teachings of the Kabbalah and shamanism applied to Shorin-Ryu force
philosophy (by Sue Blair)

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There are several ways in which people are attacked in today's
society. One is the blatant physical attack out of nowhere. There is
only one possible reaction to this type of attack which is immediate
and fully-committed self-defense techniques without hesitation. The
universal spirit will align to help you with this immediately.

There is another type of attack which allows some freedom of
choice. This is a test from the spirit to see how you utilize your
free will when given the opportunity.  The theory is that if you
choose not to react immediately when provoked, you momentarily step
back, align yourself with the spirit,  and are allowed to see all
of the alternatives at your disposal. You are in the Moment and are
connecting with the eternal consciousness where there is no time,
matter, and space.

The theory is that when you have a knee-jerk reaction to a situation
that you have some control over, your reply does not have as much
meaning and intent as it could. Anyone who is fully reacting without
thought, decision, and Moment does not have the force of the universe
helping him/her out.

An example situation arises when someone says to you at a public
place, 'If I were you, I would leave.' Your first reaction might be
to punch the person's lights out. Maybe your first instinct is to
run. However, in this situation, you are given a moment to place
yourself in the Moment to consider. Is your first reaction really
the best course of action?  What are all possible alternatives? 

You can choose to walk away, to try a verbal technique to defuse the
situation, or try a verbal escalation technique, the complete psycho 
approach, or something really creative like feigning a sudden epileptic
attack. Your inner voice will tell you which alternative is right,
once you are in the Moment.  You get in the Moment by suspending
all knee-jerk emotionalism that you have learned as a by-product of
society (how you were brought up, what your teacher said, what the
movies implied that you should do, what Chuck Norris did in The
Octagon, and what MacGyver did in episode 37).

There is no shame in walking away from a fight. Sometimes it is
the best thing that you can do.  What if your antagonist is really
huge? You could get your ass kicked the day before your sister's
wedding.  Do you really want to be standing before spectators with
a huge black eye, not to mention marring the wedding party photos?

Maybe walking away isn't the best answer either. Maybe the person
antagonizing you is a bully and needs someone to stand up to him.
It may or may not be that you would be that particular someone on
this particular day.

A warning about verbal de-fusing techniques. Sometimes, these
backfire. If you want to walk away, and have the opportunity to just
walk away, then just walk away.  The three main ways that verbal
de-fusing techniques backfire are misunderstanding, boomerang,
and fueling the fire.

Misunderstanding usually occurs when a joke is used to try to defuse
a situation and the person you are trying to defuse takes it the
wrong way. If someone says, "If I were you, I would leave" and you
say, "If you were me, you'd be good-looking", they may kick your
ass.

Boomerang occurs when somebody, Debbie for instance, says something
like, "I was not invited to Chris' party. I think this is because
you said something about me to her." You could just "walk away"
and say, "Nope, I've never said anything to Chris". But if you say,
"No, Chris told me that she didn't invite you because she thought
you were hitting on her boyfriend.", that can boomerang when Debbie
confronts Chris with, "Sue told me that you said blah".  Now Chris
isn't talking to you either. You could have just "walked away"
and saved yourself further grief in an already poisonous
gossip-laden situation.

Fueling the fire occurs when your de-escalation technique is seen
by your antagonist as a sign of weakness (therefore a sign
that he has a compliant victim on his hands) and so goes farther in
antagonizing you. This one is hard to get out of, so it is really
much easier to just walk away in the first place. An example would
be him saying, "If I were you, I would leave" and you say, "Look, I
don't want any trouble. I'm sorry if I've offended you in some way".
People that have their heart set on a fight will not be de-fused
by this. They will turn it against you, and will make it clear to
everyone around that they think you are a big wussy. They are trying
to goad you into a conflict at this point, but you still do have some
leeway in reacting. You may think, 'Chuck Norris would never let his
honor be derided by backing down from a fight with a man who called
him a wussy', but this is not what you must base your decision on.

The whole thought behind getting in the Moment is to align with the
spirit and decide on a course of action. Then, you will have the
force of the spirit behind you on whatever course of action
you decide to take. People say, 'he who hesitates is lost', and
though that is true in many cases, you will have time to be in
the Moment in many cases. People in the Moment will tell you that
time seems to slow down and they are given enough space and calm to
decide. Probably you have seen this in some martial arts films where
people face off against each other in the opening stance of their
style. This is a nod to being in the Moment. Sometimes they actually
say, "I have decided to fight you in the tree style of my ancestors
and I am aligned with the universal spirit" (though it is much
cooler if they just stand in their form and say nothing).

The verbal escalation technique should be used only when you have
decided you want to fight. The verbal escalation technique is used
to take away your opponent's momentum (by knocking him out of his
Moment, assuming he is in one) and put him into a total emotional
reactionary state.  The most-often used verbal escalation technique
is the ad hominem remark, or personal insult. For example, a guy
grabs your shirt and says, 'If I were you, I would leave". You say,
"I don't like faggots touching me" (since you know he is a
homophobe).  This will knock him out of his moment and you must
immediately strike with full commitment.

The psycho approach should be used at all times when you decide to
physically strike an opponent. All it means is that you strike with
full committment, focus, and force.  When you do this, people will
think that you are a psycho and will never bother you again. That
should be what you want. Sometimes, it has the negative fallout
of _everyone_ thinking that you are a psycho and everyone staying
away from you. So you should try to employ this technique only
when necessary.

The creative approach involves something that is just completely
different to cause a break in the momentum of the action that is
happening.  This may have the good effect of having the antagonist
slip out of his/her reactive state and slip into the Moment where
he thinks better of his actions. Or it may serve as a distraction
so that a friend of yours has time to pick up a chair and hit
your antagonist over the head with it.  Examples: feigning an
epileptic attack, pretending that your cellphone is vibrating and
"answering" it.

Note that others (your friends, the cosmic force) can use the
creative approach to cause a break in the action.  A friend of yours
feigns an epileptic attack, a waiter drops a tray of drinks, a really
hot chick walks by, distracting your antagonist (and everybody else).
Some weird deus ex machinations happen, but don't rely on those,
rely on yourself. When you place yourself in alignment with the
Moment, you are in alignment with the spirit. Your actions will
have more impact with the force of the spirit behind them, especially
if you do decide to fight. You will be coming from a place of light
and enlightenment rather than a place of a single knee-jerk reaction
that may not be the best choice.

You can also use the Moment in daily situations to help you.
Instead of fuming that you have to stand in line at the grocery
store and focusing on that, put yourself in the Moment. You
may find that the person standing next to you knows a friend of
yours or you may take the time to read and enjoy an interesting
article. Or you may read an unenlightening article about a hunter
falling in love with a yeti, and end up laughing instead.