Cyberdov

Years ago, I read this idea in a column in Moment magazine - I think it was by Harold Schulweiss. If nothing is coincidental, then the annual confluence of the High Holidays and the MLB playoffs has something to tell us as well.

Every year, we approach the High Holidays with sincere intentions and high hopes. We resolve to change our ways, to improve ourselves and our relationships with God and with our fellow man. And yet, gnawing at the back of our minds is the knowledge that next year, we will more than likely be back at the same spot, having perhaps experienced some success during the year but also much failure. We know that we will be making the same resolutions, with the same hope for improvement but also with the fatalism borne of long experience.

Perhaps baseball can shed some light on this predicament. Growing up in Brooklyn in the 1950’s, Schulweiss was of course a Brooklyn Dodgers fan. Every spring was filled with hope, and these hopes only intensified in September as fans dared to hope that this would be the year that the Dodgers would grasp the brass ring. And yet, at the same time, these fans knew from long experience that their hopes would likely be frustrated come October, as the prize slipped from their grasp. Yet the same hopes would genuinely spring up again and again, season after season - perhaps this will be the year!

Meanwhile, those smug Yankees fans of the period just knew at the beginning of  each season, with a fair degree of certainty, that their hopes would be fulfilled and the Yankees would bring home another pennant and likely a World Series victory.

So it is somewhat comforting to know that despite the fact that we so often fall into the same old patterns, despite our best intentions - there is hope for change and success! Even the hapless Boston Red Sox, despite decades of perennial dashed hopes, had their dogged persistance finally rewarded. Similarly, we may continue to dare to hope that this will be the year that our renewed efforts of teshuva will finally yield their fruits.

At the same time, those Yankees fans among us - those who succeed, year after year, of achieving the lofty goals they set for themselves each Rosh HaShanah - must continue to beware the pitfalls of over-confidence, lest they lose that edge which somehow enables them to reach their goals.

May the coming new year bring renewed hope, improvement, and success to all of us.

Filed under: DJC, Torah