The NY Jets Game

Author: "Rebbele"

http://hasidicrebbele.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html

…A moving story Rabbi Dr. Avraham Twersky shared with our students not long ago highlights this point. He mentioned that when he was once in New York City with some time on his hands, he dropped in on an AA meeting which, as an expert in addiction rehabilitation, he often made a point of attending. The stories told by the various participants were more of less routine, and he sat in the background feeling somewhat detached. Towards the end, a woman stood up and recounted her personal saga, concluding with an interesting anecdote that caught his attention.

She told everybody how she was an avid Jets fan, never missing a game. The past weekend she had to be out of town for business weekend, and she knew she would miss the Sunday game. She asked her fellow coworker to record the game for her. Sure enough, when she arrived at work on Monday morning, her co-worker snipped the VHS into her bag, commenting that it was a good game and that the Jets won.

Her work that day was particularly grueling, and it was only when she came home that she remembered that she had the tape in her bag. She slipped it into her video machine while preparing supper. She sat down on the couch to watch the game, which turned out to be atrocious. She had never seen the Jets play so poorly! By half time, they were trailing far behind their opponents; even her favorite players kept on making strategic mistakes. Normally, she said, she would be jumping up and down on the couch, batting at the air with her fists, shouting unsavory adjectives at the players.

Yet she was inexplicably unperturbed. She watched the scoreboard calmly as the opposite team's score continued to rise. In the last fifteen minutes, the game took a dramatic turn, and the Jets started scoring. In one of the game's most unpredictable reversals, the Jets won the game.

The speaker said she was reflecting afterwards about the reason her reactions were so muted during the game, when the Jets' poor showing would normally have greatly distressed her. She realized that since her friend had planted in her mind a strong conviction that her team had won the game, it didn't matter how badly things went for them during the course of the match. She was able to maintain her composure knowing things would work out well in the end.

She turned to everybody and said "Yes, life can at times be extremely challenging, we want at times to punch the wall and scream. But if we realize that in the end we will triumph, we can maintain our composure and take the bumps in the road in our stride.

Concluding his remarks, Rabbi Twersky said it was worth coming from Pittsburgh to NY just to hear this story! Not only does it have immense relevance to our personal lives, but it can change the way we view the long galus through which the Jewish people are still struggling.

Only by clinging to our faith, and remaining secure in the knowledge that everything Hashem does is for our benefit, we are able to navigate the treacherous twists and turns in the long and lonely exile. We are confident that ultimately Tisha B'Av will be a festival greater than all the other chagim. In retrospect, when we come through the harrowing journey to the other side, all the struggles and challenges will be revealed as valuable and integral pieces of the seemingly random patchwork that so confused us. It will ultimately unfold as a glorious picture with the coming of Moshiach speedily in our days.