Though Wounded, In the Winners Circle
Yom Kippur Sermon Inspired by Seabiscuit
Yom Kippur
October 6, 2003
Rabbi Schwartz walks out of his shul in New York one
day and a gust of wind blows his hat off his head. The rabbi
is an older man and uses a cane and could not run after his
hat. A man walking across the street sees the hat blown some
distance, he runs and retrieves the hat and hands it to the
rabbi. The rabbi places his hand on the man's shoulder and
says "Thank you for my hat and G-d bless you" The young man,
not Jewish, but thinks to himself, I've just been blessed by
the Rabbi, this must be my lucky day and so heads off to the
race track. In the first race he sees a horse listed Stetson
at 20 to 1. He best $50.00 and sure enough the horse comes in
first. In the second race he sees a horse named Fedora
running 30 to 1 and he bets it all and he wins again. At the
end of the day, he returns home and he tells the whole story
to his wife and how he caught the Rabbi's hat and was blessed
by him and then went to the track and started winning. So his
wife asks him "So where's the money?" He says I lost it all in
the 9th race. I bet on a horse named Chateau and it lost." She
says "you're a fool, Chateau is a house, Chapeau is a hat. "It
doesn't matter he says, the winner was some horse with a
Japanese name... Yarmulke." That is the only existent Jewish
horse racing joke. My thanks to the head of my research
department, Janie who after an almost endless internet search
found this one Jewish horse racing joke. I was a little
hesitant to use new material, untested, on Yom Kippur. Janie
assured me that if I delivered the joke right, it would be
funny. So, hang in with me and it will become apparent in
some time why I begin with this joke.
Laura Hillenbrand has been suffering from chronic
fatigue syndrome for the past seventeen years. In the last
few months her story has become widely publicized. I heard her
story by chance watching a piece on TV this summer that
featured her. In the interview, she looked perfectly fine but
the reality is she spends much of her day in bed. An outing
for her is getting out of bed and sitting in a chair or
walking to another room of her house.
No one could fault Ms. Hillenbrand if her
accomplishments were minimal these past 17 years. Just making
it through the day is an effort. Her time might be filled with
asking "why me" or trying to fight a depression that could be
joined to this debilitating illness. In a thankfully much
less dramatic way, many of us can relate to this story. For
many of us, we look fine and no one notices or can discern
what we are dealing with inside. We are thankfully not
confined to our bedroom day after day but in ways we are
confined, we live with our own limitations, disabilities,
heartaches, physical and emotional. Our tradition tells us
that this is a day for us to afflict our souls, v'eeneetem
et nafshoteychem, but for many of us, the affliction
does not end with the sounding of the Shofar tonight. When we
come together in such large numbers to celebrate the new
year, I can't help but ache for those amongst us who are so
burdened, it is difficult for them to celebrate but they are
here. In different ways and at different times, we all find
ourselves so burdened.
Laura Hillenbrand is nothing less than an inspiration.
I recently purchased a non-fiction book she wrote, a best
seller in hardback and now a best seller in paperback. One
Saturday evening this summer, Janie and I saw a wonderful
movie based on the book. This book has been Ms. Hillenbrand's
passion for the past number of years. Her research was
inexhaustible using the internet, interviewing figures from
that Depression era still alive today, calling leads all over
the country. She did all this often from her bed. After she
wrote her book, she served as a consultant for the making of
the movie but she was never seen on the set. She remained
confined to her home. Many of you may recognize this story. The story is a reflection of the author herself. The book she
wrote and the movie produced is Seabiscuit. It is a story
about the limitations, heartaches, wounds of each character.
One might have look at them and called each a loser and yet
together they became the greatest of winners.
I purchased the book and went to see the movie not so
much for the movie itself but for the author. I was so moved
by her story. To endure an illness for these many years, to
not give up and to not give in is remarkable. I was then
moved by the story she wrote, one of the greatest sports
stories of all time. One might read the book or see the
movie and leave it at that and that would be enough. I see
this true story also as a sort of a Midrash for us to learn
other meaningful life lessons from it.
This is a story of three men and a horse Seabiscuit,
each of whom could have been considered down for the count in
life but somehow got up again. It happened at a time, during
the depression, when most of America was down and out. Each of
the characters was in great measure wounded in life. I think
that is true of all of us here today. Life wounds is a theme
I turn and return to from time to time because the more you
share your lives with me, the more I learn of your wounds,
pains, hurts, afflictions. I am all too aware of my own life
wounds as well and find myself either grateful for what I've
accomplished in spite of them or working still to accomplish
what I can while I live with them. I also believe, as I have
taught before that our wounds are not only an impediment.
Sometimes the greatest gifts we can offer come from where we
have been wounded. Jacob who becomes Israel is the exemplar of
this. It is only when he is wounded in his thigh that he is
worthy of becoming the patriarch of a great people. Hemingway
once wrote "The world breaks everyone and afterwards, many are
strong in broken places.
The main characters of the story are the owner, the
trainer, the jockey and Seabiscuit himself. Each one came to
the winners circle having been wounded severely by life. The
owner Charles Howard was a self made man, handsome, wealthy
beyond measure with his success in his Buick dealership. He
was living the charmed life in California until he lost his
son tragically in an automobile accident. There are few larger
wounds in life than the loss of a child. In their grief he
lost his marriage, tragedies can do that to a marriage and he
all but lost his purpose for living. After some time, Howard
somehow hopes to repair his world, through the excitement of
the world of horses and racing. He needs a trainer and he
comes across a loner, once a cowboy by the name of Tom
Smith. While broken himself, "Silent Tom" Smith, as he was
known, appreciates the value of a life that has been wounded.
Like him, we can best use our own life wounds to empathize
with others. There is a particularly poignant scene where we
meet another racehorse that has broken its foot. That horse's
owner was about to shoot it deeming it worthless and Tom Smith
says "I'll take him." It is that evening that Charles Howard
meets him and sees this horse with a bandaged leg. Howard asks
Smith why he saved him. "Will he ever race again?" Howard
asks. "No" says Smith, not that one." "Then why are you
fixing him?" asks Howard to which Smith replies "Every horse
is good for something. He could be a cart horse or a lead pony
and he's still nice to look at. Y'know, you don't throw a
whole life away just 'cause it's banged up a little." I
imagine we're all banged up a little or more than a little. We
each still have something worthwhile, even precious to offer.
The jockey Red Pollard was as banged up as that horse.
He grew up in a loving, literary Irish home and had a talent
for riding. When the depression struck and his parents could
no longer support their family, he was given to be cared for
by an owner of a successful stable. When he didn't prove to
be an immediate winner he was relegated to cleaning the
stables. He tried to make a way for himself as a
prizefighter. Again, he lost, this time vision in one eye.
What would any one want with a one eyed jockey with a losing
record anymore than a horse with a broken leg? Seabiscuit
himself was no great Metziah as we would say. He was a
descendant of the great Man O War but showed no signs of a
great race horse. He wasn't big enough or strong enough or
fast enough. He lost his first sixteen races yet somehow he
becomes one of the greatest winners in racing history. That is
the story and herein is the Midrash. We can see our reflection
in this story and in this horse. For most of us, growing up
was learning that we weren't the best. We weren't the fastest
runner in the class, not the strongest, not the most popular,
not the best ball player and we didn't even have the best
smile. We probably weren't the best in math or chemistry and
others may not have given us a second look but somehow we made
our way in life. We may have even found that one area where we
can really shine, our own winners circle and if not yet,
perhaps we still can. Lonely Tom Smith was looking for
something in a horse that was deeper than outward appearances.
He wasn't looking for the biggest or strongest. He was looking
for an inner spirit to win. There is a wonderful Talmudic
teaching that captures this. Al tistakel b'kankan ela b'ma
sh'yesh bo.
Do not look at a flask but rather at that which it contains.
We look at flasks and make a judgment most often. The
trainer looked more deeply within and saw the winner no one
else could possibly recognize. We would all do well to look
more deeply within others and within ourselves and recognize
our spirit to prevail.
One of the most meaningful aspects of this story for
me is that left alone, each of these three men and this horse
would probably have remained a loser and at best somehow
survive through life. Together however, they not only
survived, they thrived. In one of the most eloquent and moving
speeches I have ever heard, Tom Friedman, op-ed writer for the
New York Times, this past May, spoke about two types of
people in life, survivors and thrivers. These men not only
survived, they thrived. Howard discovered this washed up
cowboy and gave him an opportunity to be a trainer. Silent Tom
Smith mentors this young Red Pollard who otherwise
had only one eye and his anger at life to keep him company.
Howard had met a woman who was able to help him to find joy
and meaning in life again. Seabiscuit, a racing reject gets
three men totally devoted to him. There is a wisdom in our
tradition that we need a Minyan in order to have a service.
We understand well that life is not to be lived alone. Along
with not having Jewish missionaries, we don't have Jewish
monks who go to the mountaintop to contemplate their
aloneness. Life is to be lived in the company of others in the
context of a community. Community is central to us here at
Ohev Shalom and how we can touch each other is primary.
We need one another. The quarterback, somewhat in the news
this past week, needs his linemen, a clean up hitter is better
when he's got a strong hitter batting fifth. The astronaut
needs the other members of the crew. A wife is better with
the support of husband who may be the wind beneath her wings,
a teacher is inspired by students who are eager to learn and a
rabbi is energized by congregants who are receptive to his
words and for that this rabbi thanks you deeply. There would
be no reason for me to stand here without you sitting there.
I relate to this story in a very personal way. In the
late winter of 1976, a terribly wounded young man came to
conduct the first service of Ohev Shalom. I looked a lot
worse than that horse. I had almost no hair. I was scheduled
to go back to the hospital the following day for a week's IV
chemotherapy. I had to look terribly weak. That's how I
felt. I often look back at that time and think someone could
well have said its hard even to look at him and who knows if
he'll stick around and that would have ended our
relationship. I don't know if anyone saw past my outward
appearance and saw an inner spirit for Judaism that was truly
alive, perhaps but maybe not. Maybe it was G-d who saw it and
so made this Shidduch. From that Purim on, I never felt
alone. Over time, the wounds slowly healed, my hair grew back
and thankfully is still here. Together, we have done more
than survived, we have thrived. It would not, could not have
been the same alone. We need each other and I have always been
and remain grateful for the gift this synagogue has been to
me.
When I sat down to write this sermon, I found myself
almost immediately going in a direction I had not prepared to
travel with it. While there was absolutely nothing
particularly Jewish in the story, I felt that each of these
stories is in a way the story of our people, the Jewish
people. Who would have expected to find us in the winners
circle? That's where we are. That is why I am so deeply proud
to be a Jew and am committed to the future of our people. Did
you ever see a list of Jewish Nobel prize winners. It is
incredibly long and we are represented in every field of the
arts and sciences. Our contribution to the world is amazing
despite our minuscule size. I learned how many Nobel Prize
winners we had when I saw
something circulating on the internet some time ago comparing
the number of Jewish and Muslim Nobel Prize winners. In
literature we have produced 9, in peace 8, in chemistry 22. In
economics our lucky number 13, in medicine I count 45 and in
physics 31. I remember my rabbi saying again and again from
the pulpit that the 19th century British philosopher Arnold
Toynbee relegated the Jews to the dustbin of history and
called us a relic of the past. We were that horse with a
broken leg. Of what worth were we? We were counted out and
this was even before we were decimated further by the
Holocaust. And here we are today. But we are more than just
here today. We Jews are not only survivors, we are thrivers.
Our tradition calls us an Am Segula a treasured
people. I believe that. I believe we are a treasured people.
We are small, bruised, wounded and flawed and we are a
treasured people in this world. Sometimes the world has done
just the opposite of treasuring us. It is not surprising that
evil dictators want to eliminate us because we are the people
that brings the message "justice, justice shall you pursue."
That's not how dictatorships function. But as I quoted from
Mark Twain last night, "The Jew saw them all. Beat them all
and is now what he always was exhibiting no decadence, no
infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of
his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind." I
love those words.
Seabiscuit goes on to race against the great triple
crown winner War Admiral and wins. Sadly, before the race, his
jockey Red Pollard broke a leg and was told he would never
ride again. Howard was ready to cancel the race but Red
insists that another jockey ride for him and tells him to let
the two horses, War Admiral and Seabiscuit come neck to neck.
Let Seabiscuit look him in the eye and when he does he'll be
ignited to run ahead. The secret of winning is to look life
in the eye, be ignited and let ourselves move ahead. After
the race, just like Red Pollard, somehow Seabiscuit also
breaks his leg. Horses never run again after this. But not
this horse and not this jockey. They heal each other and run
again in one of the greatest racing stakes and they win.
Together, we can do what we never possibly could alone.
And so here we are each are with our wounds, our
limitations, our heartaches like each character of this story.
We can hope to at best to survive and live another year or we
can work to thrive and arrive at the winners circle in life.
That's were Seabiscuit arrived in 1938 when the country was
reeling in depression and he lifted a nation's spirit. That's
were Laura Hillenbrand has arrived, though physically no
better, she is in the winner's circle as well. Here is to a
year of not only surviving, but each of us in our own way
thriving. That is the story of this horse. That is the story
of our people. That can be your story and my story this year
as well.
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