Sermon by Rabbi Denise L. Eger, October 22, 2004

Shabbat Shalom

This week I am grateful. I was grateful for the distraction that came from the cantankerous and divisive rhetoric of the campaign trail. I was grateful for the National and American League Championship baseball games. I was grateful to watch the Astros take on the St. Louis Cardinals. I was grateful to watch the Boston Red Sox come from behind so dramatically to defeat the New York Yankees. I am grateful that for a few moments this past week I was able to focus on something other than every margin of error of too many polls, when the only poll that counts is the election on Nov. 2. I await the World Series tomorrow night and next week. Again, I am grateful that there is something other to focus on than the difficult state of the world and our country.

We love baseball in our house. I must confess that I have always loved baseball. Even as a young girl I had an extensive baseball card collection—a Pittsburgh Pirate baseball signed by all of the Pittsburgh Pirates of 1968 including Jim Bunning, Willie Stargell and Roberto Clemente, Manny Mota and several signatures of the 1968 New York Mets as well including Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, Al Weis and Ken Boswell. I guess my mother should have known then! But as I grew up—I left baseball aside for other things –like music. But always baseball was a part of my essence.

I have to say that my own son loves baseball and plays it so well is an added bonus that has brought a stronger bond to our family. So now we all follow not only the pro teams but also the teams in our pony league. And the beauty of Southern California is that we can play baseball not only in the spring and summer but here we are blessed with fall ball and fall ball clinics. So we spend a lot of time on the bleachers and I must confess too much time eating sunflower seeds! But there is a comfort in reconnecting with a passion of my childhood.

I believe there is poignancy in baseball that is different than other sports. Football is tough and mighty. You can feel the power as the tackle is made. Tennis is a spirited test not only of strength and skill but also of endurance and of psychology. Basketball is quick paced and rough, elbows flying trying to foul but not get caught. But baseball—paced and measured, a game of threes –three strikes, nine innings, and nine players on the field has a different tempo and rhythm. But in baseball something else happens—in addition to tracking the hits made and runs scored and runs batted in and batting averages—errors are tracked. The mistakes made are entered into the official scoring of the game. And there I think the difference lies.

While hockey has its penalty box, a track and field as well as swimming has a false start, football has fumbles---none of these go into the official scoring of the game. Only baseball has hits, runs and errors as part of the official scoring.

And there lies the difference.

We all make mistakes. We try to avoid them. We try to overcome them. But mistakes are inevitable. Sometime they come when we say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Or we do the wrong thing. We misjudge others or ourselves. We forget to say or do. We fail to live up to our own expectations or expectations of those we love and care about. It is inevitable—at one time or another we all make mistakes. Including ballplayers.

And in baseball there is a memory of those mistakes through the way the game is officially scored. If put into the perspective of self-reflection, the errors tell us a lot about the game, the players and the teams. The errors as scored often tell the tale of wins and losses.

So too for us, the errors and mistakes we make, can if we self-reflect, help us learn more those on our team and about ourselves! The successes of our lives as well as the errors can lead us on a journey of discovery about who we are- our true selves. Our personal box scores—of runs and hits and errors help us tell our own stories of change, and growth, if we pay attention to them and keep the memory of them near.

Former manager Alvin Dark was asked to compare teams he managed over the years. "With the A's we depended upon pitching and speed to win. With the Giants we depended upon pitching and power to win. With the Cleveland Indians we depended upon an act of God." Even in baseball faith sometimes must be the driving force.

This week’s parasha is Lech Lecha is about an act of God—the beginning of the story of the Jewish people. This is the week—God calls Avram and Sarai to the land of Cannaan. This is the week –God makes the covenant with them, the promise of nations to come and descendants to carry on their names. This is the week the journey to a land that God will show us –begins.

But what is that journey? Is it a physical journey? Clearly the story of Torah tells us it is. From the land of Haran to the Promised Land of Eretz Yisrael . But I think it is more than that. This week’s parasha is metaphor—This is a journey of self-discovery. This is a journey of self-identity, a journey within.

The very name of the parasha is a clue to this. The literal meaning of the words “Lech Lecha” is --go to your self. What does this mean? The great rabbinic commentator Rashi explains that God promised Avram that the journey would be for his own benefit. Although travel is costly and unsettling and difficult in ancient times, God assured him the journey would bring blessing, fame, and descendants. “All the families of earth shall bless themselves by you.”--God says.

And as God promised our ancestors Avram and Sarai so too this is a promise to each of us that through our journey within, our journey to self-discovery, to Jewish connection through faith in our God we will receive blessings that we can appreciate in our own lives. In a deeper sense, God told Abraham go to your true being! Going on this journey to his self and deepening his faith in God would not be a negation of himself, but would allow him to reach his true essence. And that indeed is the Promised Land.

For the St. Louis Cardinals and the Boston Red Sox—they too have reached their Promised Land this week--- a trip to the World Series. But only after they journeyed through a long and arduous season—and a long playoff series as well. They journeyed through runs and hits and yes, errors—to make it.

So too for us… may our own journeys of self-discovery—take us to the Promised Land of self knowledge, and faith, self-discovery and confidence in the blessing of the covenant that God not only made with our ancestors but with each of… Lech Lecha—Go forth from your ancestors’ land—toward yourself—to yourself—and ultimately toward God.

Posted by Lee at October 26, 2004 10:55 AM