The Newspaper headline read, JOCKEY BEATS HORSE OVER FINISH LINE. The jockey beat the pack by 20 lengths and his horse by one length when he was catapulted out of the saddle and over the finish line. His horse, who had tripped, followed soon after. But the victory went to the second-place finisher named Slip-Up. A race official said that the jockey “was so far in front that only a freak accident would stop him…and that’s what happened.”
We’ve all experienced life’s unexpected
happenings. Because this year there’s no Shabbat Hol Hamoed we read Megillat
Kohellet, the scroll of Ecclesiastes on Shemini Atzeret. According to
tradition, King Solomon wrote this book and he took note of these unexpected
happenings when he wrote “The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the
strong. (9:11) He reflected on the fact that a person is not the master of his
destiny, as he so often thinks he is.
Life is filled with unpredictable experiences
and events. They seem like stones dropped into the gears of human ingenuity. A
strong, healthy person drops dead. A rising young pitcher drowns in a boating
accident. A person of means suddenly loses everything in a bad deal.
What does Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret teach us
when we make our temporary dwellings our home? Not to trust solely on our own
strength, our own wisdom, or our own skills, but to trust in the Lord who is
there to help us, and guide us, and support us no matter when we finish life’s
race.
Shabbat Shalom and Hag Samayach,
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