Which One Are You Now?

 Which one are you Now?

The Haggadah quoting the Mishnah in Pesachim 10:4 posits that there are four different kinds of children, one wise, one wicked, one simple, and one who doesn’t even know how to ask.  The editor of Rav Kook’s Hagadah cites a commentary from Rabbi Kook’s son, Rabbi Zvi Judah Hakohen Kook.  “He liked to quote from the book Yein Levanon the following insight:  In the Hebrew language, the word for ‘wise man,’ hakham, refers not only to intellectual acumen but connotes moral virtues as well.  The hakham is also a tsaddik (righteous person). This is certainly borne out by the opposition of the wise child to the wicked child.  We might have expected the wording to be ‘One wise, one foolish (tipesh), ‘or one righteous (tzaddik), one wicked” From the fact that the opposite of hakham (wise) is rasha (wicked), we are given to understand that a hakham is a tzaddik by definition. (Rav Kook’s Hagadah, page 47)

An example of the difference between a wise person and a wicked person can be ripped from the headlines.  Children are in the news again and unfortunately these teenagers are more wicked than wise. Recently, two male students on the Stubenville High School football team were convicted of raping a 16 year girl who was so drunk she was not conscious at the time. Another from of violence has reared its ugly head.  Rape is not a sexual crime; it is a violent crime against another person’s body.  Some of the media coverage of the rape conviction was almost as shocking as the despicable act itself. CNN said the boys were promising students.  ABCNews made excuses for the rapists. NBCNEWS laments the boys promising football careers. USAToday stressed that the victim was drunk.  Apparently not only young adults fall into the wicked category.  Violence has permeated all strata of life in America and the media perpetuates this violent culture.

But violence as a solution is so ingrained in our society that the Stubenville story has not yet ended.  A day after two high school football players were convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl, authorities arrested two Ohio girls suspected of making online threats against the accuser. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said the girls arrested Monday posted threatening comments on Twitter on Sunday, the day the players were convicted in Steubenville. One of the messages was later reposted on Facebook.  The older girl all of 16 years old was charged with aggravated menacing for a tweet that threatened homicide and said "you ripped my family apart," according to the attorney general's office. The girl is a cousin of one of the defendants attorney general spokesman Dan Tierney said Tuesday. A Twitter message from the younger girl, 15 years old, threatened the accuser with bodily harm, leading to a menacing charge, the office said.

Seeing the faults of others, while excusing them in ourselves, is a most common sin. If we are to be worthy of our final redemption, the Haggadah forces us to examine our own behavior as we delve deeper into the wisdom being taught by the four children.  The editor of the Rav Kook Hagadah notices that the Hagaddah repeats the word “one” again and again even though it is superfluous. Instead of saying one wise, one wicked, one simple, and one who doesn’t even know how to ask, it could have just said wise, wicked, simple, and who does not know how to ask. 

“It is possible that a great truth is contained herein.  The numerical value of the word echad (one) is thirteen. Four times thirteen equals fifty-two.  The number fifty-two is expressed in Hebrew as ben, the word for son (which I have been translating as child). In reality the four children are not separate entities.  All four of them together (echad+ echad+ echad+ echad) comprise a single child…”  (page 47)  Each one of us has the capacity to be wise or wicked or simple or who doesn’t even know how to ask.  Each moment we get to choose which child we shall emulate.  Our tradition calls us to follow God’s example and strive to be righteousness in all of our ways because the fate of the world depends upon each of us.

Choose wisely.

What's worse than slavery?

Why did God have to take the Jewish people out of slavery performing great signs and wonders?  Why didn’t they rise up in rebellion as the American people did against Great Britain back in 1776 or as the Tunisians, Egyptians, Libyans, or Syrians are who have been fighting against their autocratic regimes during the Arab Spring with the hope of installing a democratic government? 

Our tradition laments that the Israelites had sunk so low that they had become accustomed to slavery and couldn’t even imagine being free a people.   Even after they were freed, they still had a slave mentality and tried God’s patience 10 times in the desert.  Finally God decreed that that generation would never enter the Land of Israel.  Only the generations who grew up free during the 40 years of wandering in the desert, would be able to conquer the Land God had promised them.

But slavery wasn’t the only thing our ancestors got used to.  In fact there was something even worse than getting used to slavery.  In the retelling of the story of Passover, the Haggadah quotes Deuteronomy 16: 6.  “And the Egyptians dealt evil with us, and oppressed us, and imposed upon us hard labor.”  Rabbi Avraham Kook was wont to pun on this verse: “The Egyptians made us evil.  Rabbi Isaac Arieli explained how the Egyptians made us evil in his book Midrash Ariel. The Egyptians made us evil by accustoming us to seeing atrocities. (The Rav Kook Hagadah, p. 66-7) 

The lot of a slave is terrible.  He is just disposable property.  To save money Pharaoh feed them matza because it was inexpensive and a little bit goes a long way.  There is only so much matza a person can eat before he feels all clogged up.  Some of our ancestors must have wasted away for lack of a nutritious diet.  If Pharaoh and his slave owners were anything like the slave owners here in America, they too must have raped defenseless slaves, women, men, and children depending upon their proclivities.   Finally if slaves weren’t performing up to Pharaohs standings or meeting their quotas or for any other reason, they were whipped and sometimes punished with death. Because of an irrational fear, Pharaoh had all the male children thrown in the Nile and Moses saved a kinsman from a taskmaster’s beating.  Violence had seeped into the slave culture for the very next day Moses tries to stop two Hebrews from fighting.  Indeed the Israelites had become so accustomed to atrocities they didn’t complained and accepted that way of life as normal even with their dealings with one another.

Just yesterday we just dodged another bullet. A University of Central Florida dropout planned an attack on the campus but committed suicide in a dorm before carrying it out, the authorities said Monday. The man, James Oliver Seevakumaran, 30, pulled a gun on another student, who then called police, said the university’s police chief, Richard Beary. Thanks to the quick response of the police before he could carry out his deadly plan, Mr. Seevakumaran shot himself in the head. Four explosive devices were found in a backpack, and Chief Beary said he believed that Mr. Seevakumaran pulled a fire alarm in the dorm to get other students out in the open for an attack.  What could have been another Virginia Tech tragedy, ended up with no loss of innocent life!

We have become so accustomed to gun violence atrocities that it has become part of our everyday culture.  Just think how many gun allusions we employ in our daily speech.  Do you stick to your guns?  Do you believe that forewarned is to be forearmed?  Have you known anybody who has gone ballistic or at least gone off half cocked? How many of you have dodged a bullet but not in the literal sense that I used in an above paragraph?  We have become so inured to gun violence that we have allowed our leaders enact laws and policies that perpetuate murder.  Here are just a few examples:

1.     In the United States, we register births, marriages, divorces and deaths; we register cars, trucks, boats, trailers, bicycles, houses, lands, dogs, and cats- everything but guns.

2.     In most states, a person can buy and own a gun without knowing how to use it and there are no requirements that gun owners be trained in the safe operation of guns.

3.     The Consumer Protection Act of 1972 prohibits the Consumer Protection Commission from examining the quality or safety of any gun or any piece of ammunition.  Teddy Bears, dolls and toy guns must pass four sets of strict regulations before they can be sold.

4.     States with the highest rates of death and injuries by guns have the weakest gun laws and the largest export of crime guns compared to other states with stronger laws.

5.     Studies have shown that sane gun regulations will reduce gun violence in America.  During the 10 year ban on semi-automatic guns was on the books, the murder rate dropped significantly.

6.     In 2010 the Virginia Legislature passed a law which permits persons to carry their guns into bars provided they do not consume alcohol while there.  State police chiefs described this legislation as “a recipe for disaster.”

7.     College students who have serious alcohol behaviors are more likely to have guns with them at school. A study, based on a nationally representative sample of more than 15,000 students at 130 4-year colleges, found students arrested for driving under the influence are twice as likely to have guns compared with students who have not been so arrested

8.     More than 50% of guns acquired at crime scenes come from 1% of gun dealers. The ATF knows who the rogue dealers are, but present law blocks the agency from publicizing their activities or putting them out of business.

9.     In late 2005, the United States Congress and President George W Bush passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce Act, which denies victims of gun violence the right to sue manufacturers, distributors, or dealers for negligent, reckless, or irresponsible conduct. No other industry in America enjoys such blanket immunity and protection.

10. When all murders of civilians in all the developed countries of the world are tabulated, 86% occur in the United States.

Passover teaches us that we don’t have to accept the status quo and can reject the notion that gun violence is just part of our society.  God has freed us both in body and in mind.  Reducing gun violence is just as possible as our redemption out of Egypt if we would only work to end it.  Demand your legislators to ban semi-automatic guns with large clips of ammunition, to mandate background checks for all gun purchases, and to allow Federal Agencies like the FBI and ATF share background checks and gun tracing information to apprehend criminals. 

No matter what we say or what we eat this Passover, we won’t be truly free until we stop becoming accustom to gun violence and do something about it. .

We do we always bring up the past?

Top of Form

If slavery is so bad, why do we have to reenact it every Passover?  One might think we should skip over the reliving the shame of slavery.  Who wants to eat the symbolic foods like matza, poor man’s bread, the bitter herb, and the dipping in salt water? Shouldn’t we rather concentrate upon the psalms of praise, Hallel, and eating of the festive meal with its four cups of wine?

Rabbi Joshua ben Levi taught that revelation from on top of Mt. Sinai is a continuous event as it is written:  “Every day a heavenly voice goes forth from Mount Horeb, another name for Sinai,…” (Avot  6:2)  Just as revelation from Sinai is a continuous event, so too do I believe that the Exodus from Egypt is a continuous event and that’s why we still need to remember our time as slaves to Pharaoh.  We’re still not out of the woods yet.

 Rabbi Avraham Kook, the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Palestine, explains why God needed to take us out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm.  Wouldn’t it have been sufficient to take us out of Egypt with strong hand or an outstretched arm?   He writes:

A strong hand refers to the sudden, dramatic intervention of God in our history, which immediately catapulted us from the depths of depravity in Egypt to the spiritual heights of Mount Sinai.  Bu this is only one side of the coin of divine history.  In addition to the revolution of the strong hand, there must also be the evolution symbolized by the outstretched arm. The arm is outstretched meaning that the potential yet awaits its actualization. This outstretched arm alludes to the slow, gradual spiritual evolution of the Jewish people, to an ongoing process that will eventually climax in the coming of the Messiah.

These are the two tracts of history.  One, a revolution engineered from above. Left to our own resources we would never have left Egypt.  There was required supernatural divine intervention.  But the ultimate goal is not that the Torah go against the grain of nature, but rather that human nature be refined so that the Torah can be integrated and absorbed within the framework of nature.  This gradual refinement is an ongoing process over generations upon generations.  Each individual generation has its part to pay in this spiritual drama.  For this reason we say, “In every generation everyone must see himself/herself as if he or she left Egypt.” This Exodus of the “outstretched arm” is a work in progress. It yet awaits completion. (The Rav Kook Hagadah, page 38. Orot Publishers: Spring Valley, NY, 2012)

The Haggadah calls us to look around and see where the world is still not redeemed.  Slavery in many forms still exists. The weak and the poor are still exploited.  Gun violence permeates our country and war is a constant companion to too many people around the globe. By retelling the story of our people’s slavery through words, songs, and symbolic food and seeing ourselves as if we just left Egypt, we learn that God is waiting for us with an outstretched arm to complete our world’s redemption. When we join the Holy One as His partner to finish the task of redemption, our plea “Next year in Jerusalem” will no longer be a plea in potentia, but will be realized to the full extent of our longings.

Judaism on cruise control

My new grandson celebrated his 3^rd month in the land of the living.  Since my calendar was free Sunday through Tuesday of Presidents’ week, I took advantage of the break and drove up to Boston to visit him, and I guess his parents and aunt and uncle too.  I drove our new car for two reasons.  First, it has a built in g.p.s I could use in case I get lost, a pretty good assumption.  Secondly, it is a hybrid and on long distant trips we can save a lot of money on gas.

Because it is the new car, Judy drives it more than I do.  Driving it though reinforced an old lesson in a new way.  When I started driving the car, it recorded that we were getting 28.something miles per gallon of gas.  I resolved to do much better.  By not speeding too much and using the cruse control for a steady speed, I was able to end my trip by raising my gas mileage to 35.1 mpg.  I loved it when I turned off the car and before the dashboard went dark, the word excellent appears congratulating me on my superior gas mileage driving.

I was able to continue driving that car around town when I returned home from Boston.  Although I tried my best to maintain my excellent rating by driving within the speed limit, city driving of stopping and starting really lowered my mpg.  To my dismay, the car went back down to 28 mpg.

All that driving made me thing about the successful transmission of a positive and knowledgeable Jewish identity.  We are most successful in raising the next generation of Jews when adult Jewish lives are on “cruise control,” meaning living a conscious Jewish lifestyle that is steady and continuous.  If parents live their Jewish lives by making it the core of their being, then their children will appreciate the rhythm of the Jewish calendar. Instead of seeing the Shabbat as a burden, they will begin to look forward to Shabbat as a day of refreshing our souls collectively and individually.  The holidays will form and fashion the Jewish soul within by providing the yin of Yom Kippur (the ultimate serious holiday) to the yang of Purim (the ultimate joyous and fun holiday).  When children see their parents studying Torah and davening, they realize how important these activities are. 

Unfortunately, too many parents live Judaism like I drive in the city, a lot of stopping and going.  They go to Purim services when the children are young but stop when they past the age of Bar/Bat Mitzvah.  Jewish education starts in Kindergarten and ends in 7^th grade instead of seeing it as a life long journey of Jewish self discovery.  Our children learn some skills along the way.  They learn how to read Hebrew, chant a Haftorah, recite a blessing, and know a little bit about all things Jewish on a very elementary level. But just like the drastic drop of my mpg, much of what they have learned is forgotten.  These students too often drop out of Jewish life completely until they have children of their own.  By they time most of them have never had a consistent positive Jewish role model in their lives and so the cycle continues.

We’re about to enter the month of Nisan, the 6^th month of the Jewish year.  We’re half way through the calendar and Rosh Hashana is only 6 months away. It is never too early to reflect upon our lives.  Just as I hope we all drive safely and competently, so to I pray that we turn on that Jewish cruse control for our sake and the sake of our children and grandchildren.

Bitter Heshvan

Thank God, Wednesday night begins the new month of Kislev. I can hardly wait until this current month of Heshvan is over. The Rabbis nick-named Heshvan Mar-Heshvan, bitter Heshvan, because it has no holidays in it.  Tishre, the month before is chocked full of holidays including Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, and Simchat Torah.  We celebrate Hanukkah at the end of Kilsev, the new month. Only Heshvan has no holidays to celebrate in it.

Usually I enjoy the calm of Heshvan without the crush of holiday preparations.  Normal life resumes and that is a mechaya!  This Heshvan; however, has turned out to be truly bitter because I officiated at 3 members’ funerals and another friend originally from Springfield passed away this month.  Many of us joke about the dysfunctional Jewish family, but we forget about all the wonderful mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, and siblings who live their lives as role models for the rest of us.  Each in his or her own way makes his/her little corner of the world a little bit better, brighter, and cleaner.  Let me share from my eulogies to explain why those people’s deaths made Heshvan all the more bitter.

Milton Rothman of blessed memory had a large heart.  Helping others gave him pleasure.  He was a wonderful father testified his sons.  He would go out of his way to get what they needed or what just interested them. More likely than not he would just surprise them with what ever they had mentioned. What ever he did, Milt did in a big way like bringing a trunk load of NY bagels or deli to his children so they could have the New York style food they had grown up with but now unavailable now in Maryland. But he would share the food with people along the way as he drove down for his visit.  His son told me a story how a car got limped off the Grand Central Parkway and died right in front of his house.  These strangers were distraught because they were on their way to their mother’s house to celebrate Mother’s Day and now they wouldn’t make it.  Milton gave them the keys to his car and let perfect strangers drive off to their mother’s house with only a promise to return at the end of the day.  These grateful strangers returned the car and couldn’t thank him enough.  This is not the typical New Yorker I heard about growing up in Cleveland.

Irving Kleinman of blessed memory was the gentlest person you would ever want to meet. Irving had a Hebrew name that was unforgettable. cegh ic ejmh ovrct.  As you can hear, it included all of our 3 Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  According to the Kabbalah, the unknowable God sent forth 10 sefirot or emanations which symbolical represent 10 different aspects of God’s personality. The kabbalists insist that these figures of speech shouldn’t be taken literally.  They are intended to convey something of the beyond.

The sefirot are known by many names and I find it compelling to note that 3 are known as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Irving combined the attributes of Abraham/hesed or love and compassion, Isaac/din or restraint, with Jacob/teferret or beauty to be a shaina mench.  Everybody loved him.  He would give the shirt of his back to anybody for he could never say no.  Few people knew the extent of his volunteer work in so many different organizations.  His daughter told me that he had three loves, his family, his department store, and the Knights of Pythias. Irv was such an optimistic person.  He always saw the bright side of things for there wasn’t one negative bone in his body.

Sylvia Shapiro of blessed memory reminded me of Miriam Mendilow. For a couple of summers I had the privilege of introducing Jewish teenagers to the tzedakah work of Miriam Mendilow.  Israel awarded her the Israel prize for creating Yad Lakashish, an institution which restores dignity to the elderly.  Although short of stature she truly was one of the giants of Jerusalem.  She appreciated when I taught those USYers that she wasn’t short but concentrated.

Sylvia was like that too.  At 4’ 11” she was comfortable in her own skin.  She was a powerhouse, a dynamo. She was proud of who she was.  When I was speaking to the family, somebody described her saying that good things come in small packages.  I immediate thought to myself that she was just like Miriam Mendilow.  She wasn’t short; she was concentrated. 

I love the story her husband shared with me.  They weren’t only the perfect dance couple they were the perfect husband and wife for 61 years of happily married life.  They never raised their voices; they never argued.  This perplexed their neighbors because the walls of the Deepdale apartments are paper thin.  Somebody actually asked them “Where do you go to fight?”  She was also a dedicated and hard working member of her local Hadassah chapter whose name appears on one of the walls of Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem.

To tell you the truth, I had really lost touch with Ellen and her husband Jeffrey.  I moved on from Springfield, MA to Framingham, MA, and ultimately landed here in Douglaston, NY and they moved to Florida.  We reacquainted ourselves when she came up to the City for her fight against her cancer.  Both Judy and I went to visit her and at the end to comfort Jeffery as she was dying after the doctors couldn’t help her any longer during her last trip up north.  I was moved by Jeff’s absolute love, devotion, and care of his wife.

Heshvan is almost a homonym in Hebrew for the phrase Heshbon Hanefesh, taking an accounting of one’s life.  Now that I have reached my seventh decade by celebrating my 60^th birthday this past June, I know that I have fewer days ahead of me than behind me.  Talking with the survivors made me think about how I shall be remembered once I hit the 120^th year mark of my life.  Will I be remembered as being as helpful as Milton was?  Will I be remembered as being as compassionate as Irving was?  Will I be remembered as loving as Sylvia and Jeffery were?  How will my family, friends, and all those congregants I served think of me when I am gone?

Rabbi Abraham Twerski taught me the true meaning of humility.  Being humble doesn’t mean saying “I am nothing, I am nothing” when that is obviously not true.  That’s plain old lying.  Being humble means saying, “I have yet to reach my full potential.”  That certainly applies to me.  I haven’t yet reached my full potential as a husband, father, and rabbi.  I am glad I am leaving the month of Heshvan behind me and looking for a new start in the month of Kislev.  What a wonderful time to try to be the person I can be now because my family is anticipating our first grandchild any day now.  Having Milton, Irving, Sylvia, Ellen and all of my other friends, lehebadil bechayim, as my role models, I hope and pray that I live up to all those positive examples and strive to reach my full mench potential. My future grandchild and the rest of my family and community deserve nothing but the best from me.

I think that would be my best Hanukkah present ever!

Driving Down The Road Of Life

This time of year is set aside for self-reflection. It began on the first of Elul. Every morning we've been blowing shofar to awaken ourselves to the possibility of change. Slichot services marked the time when our self-reflection intensified. And of course, the 10 Days of Repentance, from Rosh Hashana through Yom Kippur, is the time set aside to do the hard soul work of becoming the people we truly aspire to be. You might say we come to synagogue for some “interior decorating.” As you can well imagine, I’ve been preparing for the High Holidays for some time now.  An insight came to me from an unusual place.

Judy and I purchased a new car because our old one was dying and probably wouldn't pass inspection and we knew that we would visit Boston more regularly now. Hillel and Lily are expecting their first child and we can't wait to be with our future grandchild. Being both economically concerned because of the never ending rising price of gas and being green minded, we purchased a Camry Hybrid. It has three power modes. The first is charging, meaning we are driving the car solely on battery power without using any gas. The second is the economic mode when we are driving the car with a combination of battery and gas. The last is power mode when we are only using gasoline. Driving slow is the key to a higher mpg rate. This past Sunday we drove to West Hartford for a wedding reception. I drove up there and was able save close to 3.5 mpg going from 39 + mpg to 42. 5. Judy has a heavier foot than I do so when she drove home, she only averaged 40 mpg. Still excellent, but less than what I achieved because she is more prone to speeding than I am.

Meditating on our mpg rates gave me an important but obvious insight about my life. That made me think how fast I am speeding through life. I wondered how much am I missing as I rush from place to place.  We have so many great milestones happening in the Greene family that I don't want life to pass me by. Amichai has finally found a job in his field with a salary and benefits. He has officially moved out making him the last Greene boy to leave home. Now we have to make dates to see our New York based children, Ami, Asaf, and Valery. I love my family so I better slow down and make time for them. Hillel and Lily live in Boston and future baby Greene is the real reason we bought the car for now we're planning to visit them quite more often. We certainly want to be a regular part of our grandchild's life. As an extra bonus, we can visit at the same time Roni and Rebecca too for they also live in Boston.  I pondered what else am I missing out in because I am speeding through life?

I know I am not unique. We are all running from one place to another. For some of us, it's car pooling the children from one activity to the next. For others we're running as fast as so we can make a living. For still others, we're running from one doctor to the next. It seems all of us are speeding through life without stopping to smell the flowers and just be in the moment. The antidote to this I thought of the old Simon and Garfunkle 59^thStreet Bridge Song.

Slow down, you move too fast.
You got to make the morning last.
Just kicking down the cobble stones.
Looking for fun and feelin' groovy.

Hello lamp-post,
What cha knowin'?
I've come to watch your flowers growin'.
Ain't cha got no rhymes for me?
Doot-in' doo-doo,
Feelin' groovy

I've got no deeds to do,
No promises to keep.
I'm dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep.
Let the morning time drop all its petals on me.
Life, I love you,
All is groovy.

When we slow down, we shall make the time for self-renewal, make the time to become more involved in Jewish life, make the time to show kindness, make the time to be charitable, and make the time to be parents and grandparents. Those are really worthwhile New Year resolutions. When we slow down we can actually take the time to become the people we truly want to be. No wonder we pray during these Awesome Days: “Let us number our days so that we may get a heart of wisdom.” (Ps. 90:12)

 Simon and Garfunkle were correct. That's pretty groovy!

King of Kings or the Coach of Coahes

I think a lot about God.  I think a lot about God especially as I prepare for the High Holidays.  I guess it is a professional hazard. In ancient times the most powerful person in the world was the king.  He literally had the life and death of his subjects in his hands. No wonder the average person held him in great awe and respect. When trying to convey God’s reality our sages understood well the metaphor of kingship.  If a human king has the power of life and death in his hands and the people owe him loyalty, how much more so the King of Kings  The whole High Holiday liturgy revolves around the metaphor of God as our King.

For us moderns that metaphor just doesn’t work any more.  Rabbi Abraham Twersky sums up our dilemma in his commentary on the Machzor Rosh Hashana:  “Who nowadays conceive of this combined feeling of awe and fear for a human king? This may not have much impact upon us, since we do not relate to a mortal king.  We elect a president for a period of time, and he does not have unrestrained powers.  To the contrary, his powers are limited by congress and the courts.  Once his term of office has ended, he is once again an ordinary citizen.  Even in countries that do have a king, it is usually a ceremonial position, with power resting int he hands of an elected government.” (page12)

As I was thinking about new metaphors for God my thoughts drifted back to my high school track coach, Coach Rojack.  I was a sophomore on the Junior Varsity team.  The coach had us run and run and run.  I was ok but not fast enough to catch anybody’s attention until one of the last meets of the year.  I had a break through and I remember the coach asking where did I come from all of the sudden.  I remember how proud I was that the coach took notice of my potential because he asked me to go out for the cross country team in the fall. (I didn’t go out for the team after my summer study teen tour of Israel because my whole life focus changed, but that is another story for another time.)

Reflecting upon my track career, I understood that Coach Rojack inspired me and the rest of the team to work harder, to be the best we could be, and to achieve lofty goals. At least for me, I found a metaphor that works.  God is my coach.  God inspires me to follow His example to work harder, to be the best I can be, and achieve lofty goals.  Just as the Merciful One is compassionate, I should be compassionate.  Because integrity is God’s middle name so to speak, integrity should be the hallmark of all my actions. When ever God’s greatness is mentioned in our Bible, His humility and concern for the powerlessness immediately follows.  Humility and concern for the downtrodden should inform all my actions. My earthly coach made me run countless 220 yard dashes in a row for my improvement, My heavenly Coach has given me the mitzvot to refine my soul and body for my improvement.  If I wanted my track coach to be proud of me, how much more so do I desire that God finds all my deeds pleasing in His sight.  God, my Coach, has inspired me to be the person I truly want to become.

I like this metaphor very much because I am an equal partner in this God-human relationship.  Although I depend upon God’s grace and forgiveness when I fall short, my Coach empowers me to take an active role in my development as a mensch, a human being.  I doubt whether Rabbi Twerski would adopt my metaphor, but certainly in his unique interpretation of a difficult verse supports me and my understanding of my Coach of Coaches.

“Rosh Hashanah does not commemorate the day the world was created. Rather, it represents the sixth day of Creation, the day on which Hashem said, ‘Let  us make man...' Genesis 1:26)

“Nowhere else in the account of Creation do we find Hashem saying, ‘Let us.”  Whose participation was Hashem seeking-and why only the creation of man?

“The Baal Shem Tov explains that all other living things were created in a state of completion.  Animals are not required to voluntarily exert themselves to change.  Caterpillars become butterflies because this transformation is programmed in their genes.  The only creature that must make a voluntary effort to become something other than it was at creation is man. Job said that man comes into the world as ‘a wild mule’ (Job 11:120, and man, by his own efforts, must change himself from an animal state into a spiritual human individual. Hence, Hashem required man’s participation in his own creation, and therefore He aid, ‘Let us make man.’ We are indeed partners with Hashem in our creation as spiritual beings.” (page 22-3)

That’s exactly like my track coach or perhaps your life coach.  So this High Holiday season to paraphrase a famous line: “Do Teshuvah (repentance) this New Year for the Gipper!”