Tag Archive: beijing

The Spiritual Message of the Beijing Olympics

Seemingly, the most celebrated athlete at the recently concluded Olympic Games is not the Chinese born Yao Ming, instead it’s a 23 year old American, by the name of Michael Phelps. The young swimming sensation has officially achieved the impossible, by moving past Mark Spitz, to become the greatest Olympian ever, and win 8 Olympic gold medals, while also breaking world records.

And yet, I believe that the person who carries the most inspirational of stories is not a young phenom. In fact, she did not even win a gold medal at the Olympics!

Dara Torres, is a 41-year-old mom, and the first American swimmer to compete in five Olympics: 1984, 1988, 1992, 2000, and 2008. What’s more, she began her comeback to the sport just a mere 6 months after giving birth to her daughter and beat out swimmers who were much younger in age. What’s more she came within 0.01 seconds of receiving a gold medal in the 50m competition.

In truth, we have seen a Jewish person, who became inspired by water, and decided right then and there to mount his spiritual comeback, despite being just one year younger than Torres. According to Jewish tradition, there was a simple Jew who worked for Ben Kalbah Savuah, one of the richest men in all of Jerusalem. Once, while shepherding his flocks, he gazed into a pool, and noticed a hollowed-out rock resting under a waterfall. He silently contemplated how a rock, one of Nature’s most dense substances, had been hollowed out. His curiosity got the best of him, as he decided to analyze this peculiar find. After some time, he noticed that water had, over a long period, drop after drop, caused a drastic change in the appearance of the rock. This event allowed him to reach the following conclusion:

“If a rock, though extremely hard, can be hollowed out by water, how much more so should it be possible for Torah, which is compared to water (in that is vital to the nourishment of the soul), to change my heart, which is certainly softer. I will begin to study it, and try to become a Jewish Sage!”

Despite being 40 years old, the shepherd began by learning how to read the Hebrew Alphabet. Ultimately, he went to Yeshiva and devoted himself to full-time Torah study for a whopping twelve years. As the years passed, the shepherd received Rabbinic Ordination, and became known to all as the famous Rabbi Akiva. He opened his own Yeshiva, and developed a following of 24,000 students.

There is a modern day expression developed by the shoe company Nike, that directs society to seize any moment of inspiration and well…”Just Do It!” As illustrated from the above two examples, God created human beings with the innate ability of free will, which by extension sets us apart from any other creature on God’s Green Earth. The fact that we have free will should remind us all that we have the power to always climb (or swim) to achieve accomplishments that seem at the surface physically impossible. Likewise, at a spiritual level each and every Jew has the ability to ascend spiritual realms and achieve everlasting meaning in their life-even if you may think that you are too old, or simply don’t have enough skills.

So the next time you feel a wave of inspiration I have 3 words for you: Just Do It!

September 18, 2008 | Tags: , , , | Leave a Comment 


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