Monday, August 5, 2013

Little Bitty Boy, With a Heart of Steel (Modeliste,Neville, Nocentelli & Porter - "Hey Pocky Way")




During a recent conversation, our son told me how much it would mean to him if I were to see at camp on his birthday. He wanted me to watch him “do camp stuff” on his birthday. I asked him what he meant by “camp stuff”.  He thought for a moment and said “baseball”.  He wanted me to watch him play baseball.  I playfully responded that I have watched him play baseball before he left for camp. He explained that he wanted me to see how much he improved. He then talked to me for ten minutes about his fielding, his throwing and his hitting and his recent exploits on the field. I was struck by his increased level of enthusiasm, not only playing the game, but talking about the game, discussing its strategy and even its history. He truly loves the game; he likes playing it, learning about it and studying it. For my son, it is pure and it is innocent.  After I hung up the phone I read about Alex Rodriguez, the 38 year old, embattled New York Yankee 3rd basemen who has already admitted to steroid use just over ten years ago and has been prominently mentioned in a recent steroid investigation over the past year. He has not played a game yet due to injury and rehab, and now he is about to be suspended from Major League Baseball. The 214 game suspension means that he would be 40 years old before he could resume playing. Essentially the 214 game suspension would ignominiously end what would have been a Hall of Fame career. If the suspension goes through, he stands to lose tens of millions of dollars. It’s ironic but when he discusses baseball, it lacks innocence, it lacks enthusiasm, and it lacks the purity of a nine year old boy wanting his dad to just watch him play.
            This week’s Parsha is Shoftim. Moshe has completed his lecture on the values of monotheism and covenant. Now he begins telling B'nai Yisroel all the nitty gritty details of living a Jewish life within this community. What a downer! B’nai Yisroel is inspired and ready to enter into Eretz Canaan and begin living the life in the land that God had promised their ancestors. They are now ready to begin fulfilling the dream that allowed them to survive centuries of slavery. So what does Moshe Rabeinu do? He brings them crashing back to reality. Now they will listen and understand laws concerning war, punishments for idolatry, choosing a king, jurisprudence, priestly entitlements and unsolved murders. Moshe gives B’nai Yisroel a healthy dose of reality by supplying all the details required to uphold the Covenant.
            One of these laws is rather curious yet serves as a reminder how important it is to maintain a balance between dreams and reality, between the idealism of our youth and the cynicism of age. V’Hayah Ch’shivto Al Kisei Mamlachto V’Chatav Lo et Mishnei HaTorah HazotAnd it shall be when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself two copies of this Torah in a bookV’Haitah Imo V’Kara Vo Kol Yemei Chayav Lema’an Yilmad L’yirah et Adonai ElohavIt shall be with him and he shall read from it all the days of his life, so that he will learn to fear the Lord his God, Lishmor et Kol Divrei HaTorah Ha’Zot V’Et HaChukim Ha’Eilah La’Asotamto observe all the words of this Torah and these decrees, to perform them, so that his heart does not become haughty over his brethren and not turn from the commandment right or left, so that he will prolong years over his kingdom, he and his sons amid Israel (Deut. 18:18-20). The king must write and maintain two Sifrei Torah. The “personal” Torah must be carried with him wherever he goes: meetings, wars, benefit dinners etc. The Torah must always remain physically near his heart. However the second Sefer Torah sits in the treasure room as a pristine copy, as a benchmark. This “benchmark” Torah remains enclosed, protected, and untouched. The king may consult it, but this pristine copy never leaves the sanctuary. How brilliant! The “personal” Torah that is carried around eventually, and sometimes unknown to the king, becomes worn, the letters fade, and the parchment may even tear.On a yearly basis, the king must lay his “personal” Torah beside the “benchmark” Torah. There, in the inner chamber, the two Torahs are checked against each other. Then if there are any discrepancies in the “Personal” Torah, the king must make the necessary corrections. The king’s “personal” Torah must reflect the purest and highest standard. Through daily wear and tear, through the compromises necessary to manage a kingdom, the king must regularly check to make sure that he has not gradually drifted away from the “Pristine” or “Benchmark” Torah.
            This is the ultimate form of personal “Checks and Balances”! Instead of waking up one morning twenty or twenty five years later wondering “What’s become of me”; Judaism understands that we all make compromises. Sometimes we may even, unfortunately, compromise our integrity our values and our own sense of propriety. Sometimes our drift from the ideal is not even that pernicious. Sometimes we just slowdown or get sidetracked. However Judaism is about behavior that expresses our relationship with each other and with God. Like a king that needs to periodically check his “personal Torah” against the “Benchmark Torah”, we also must check our “Personal Torah” against the “Benchmark Torah”. I am sure that at some point in Alex Rodriguez’s life, he played and spoke about baseball with as much childlike enthusiasm as a nine year old boy. I only hope that as our nine year old son grows up, he remembers his passion, his enthusiasm, purity and innocence in which he plays and discusses baseball, and applies it to how he lives his life.

Peace,
Rav Yitz

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