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From the Rabbi:
It’s not everyday that you find a 'Baal Teshuva' whose spiritual path back to Jewish observance was catalyzed on the gridiron. Much less a rabbi who found his passion for helping others by coaching football. Yet, rare as it might be (I'm actually not the only one any more!), here I am.
My love of God and Torah and my love for the game have contributed to one another greatly. I even have a book brewing about the Biblical origin and spiritual significance of football. (We'll talk about that more on Superbowl Sunday - Go Bills!)
There’s also things in Torah that I would have never noticed as being so special if I hadn’t learned similar lessons on the football field.
There’s one inspirational phrase so oft-repeated among football players and coaches that it’s become totally cliche. I heard a version of this ‘sermon’ from different coaches almost every year, both in highschool and college, and I made a point to give it myself every year with my Judean Rebels and with Team Israel. It’s a whole string of cliches, but it's all true. So now, I'm giving to you.
There’s no such thing as “I can’t”.
Maybe “I don't know how”. Maybe, “I'm scared to”. Maybe even “I'm not strong, or fast or disciplined enough…YET”. But there’s no “I can't”.
People say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results. NO! We call that practice! That's how we improve ourselves, by doing the same things again and again, and as we repeat them we get better at them. We improve ourselves every day.
Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right! Which wolf will you feed?
The only thing that stops us is not believing in ourselves. We got this! We've put in the practice; we've done the hard work. All we have is all we need - believe in ourselves, support each other and push through adversity. Come what may, we will march on, because we know the greatness we are capable of. We know the magnificent splendor of our destiny. We will rise to every challenge knowing we can do it because GOD IS WITH US!!.
Nice speech - but is it in the locker room or in shul? And do you know who gave this speech first? I'll give you a clue, it's in Parshat Vayishlach... He's been called an Angel, The Spirit of Esav, the Yetzer HaRa, the inner adversary, Yaakov’s conscience… We don't know his name, but we do know that he wrestled with our Father Yaakov all night long, and it was he that first gave Yaakov - and us - the name Yisrael.
It's a well known teaching principle that the first time a word appears in the Torah really defines the essence of the word. This lesson of “You Can Do It” is the very reason we are called Yisrael. And this being the first “Yisrael” in The Torah, this lesson sits at the very core of our identity.
(Genesis 32:24-29) And Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the break of day. When he saw that he could not not prevail, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But he said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Yisrael, for you have striven with God and with men, ותוכל, and YOU CAN DO IT!!”
This intense moment is so perfectly ambiguous with its use of him/he/his pronouns that you get the sense that it's all the same guy. Like Yaakov is wrestling with his twin self. This word root, יכל, generally means ‘to be capable of” or “can do”. So we can see Yaakov's 'injury' as an embodied somatic expression of “seeing he can't”. And Yisrael, is so called “because you have striven with God and with men, ותוכל and YOU CAN DO IT!!”
Our very identity as Yisrael is knowing that " We Can". Our prophesied destiny is entirely unstoppable. Mashiach coming is inevitable. So in every generation we wrestle on, knowing that the dawn WILL come. No matter the foe; whether external like the Greeks of Chanukah or Esav’s Rome - or inside ourselves, be it doubt, fear, apathy or denial, We Can! We will overcome, because we strive with God and with people’. It doesn't say נגד ‘against’, it says עם, ‘with’. We strive ‘with’ people - all together, and together ‘with' God.
Shabbat Shalom,
Coach Schachter
Classes This Week
NOTE: The Thursday evening class is paused until further notice.
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