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Book Excerpt from Step up to the Plate

Step Up to the Plate: Baseball, Judaism & How to Win the Game of Life By Rabbi Yisroel Roll Noted educator Rabbi Yisroel Roll shows how to win the game of life by learning life lessons from baseball - America's favorite sport. Inspiring & entertaining! Buy Step Up to the Plate by Rabbi Yisroel Roll at an online discount at www.targum.com

Stealing a Base: Turning a Liability into an Asset

The runner at first base takes a lead and inches his way further and further toward second base. The pitcher eyes him carefully using peripheral vision and waits before he winds up to see if he can make a throw to first base to catch the runner off the base. When the pitcher starts his windup toward the batter, the runner takes off toward second base with a fast jump in an attempt to steal second. The catcher receives the pitch and throws a line drive to the second baseman in an attempt to throw out the runner. He slides, and he’s...safe! A stolen base.

The stolen base is perfectly legal in baseball, even though it is clearly a theft. The runner wants to advance into a position where he can score more easily on a hit. The pitcher, catcher, and second baseman work together to attempt to prevent the runner from stealing the base. From the point of view of the team in the field, the stolen base is a liability. From the runner’s perspective, stealing a base is an asset. The runner wants to turn the defensive team’s liability into an asset for his team.

In Judaism, when can we turn a liability into an asset? When you have a negative trait, and you channel it into something positive, then you are turning a liability into an asset. Such is the case with the three main negative human character traits: jealousy, desire, and honor.

The Ethics of the Fathers states: ’’Jealousy, desire, and honor remove a person from the world’’ (4: 28). But how can it be that these traits are considered negative aspects of character? Didn’t God Himself create human beings with these traits? The answer is that God placed these traits into man in order for us to learn to channel and transform them into positives. Every attribute that man has can be used for good. Each one must be innately positive, as it emanates from God. We, with our earthly frailties and flaws, distort and hijack these traits for our own purposes. Our challenge is to channel them by accessing our higher selves — our higher consciousness — and use these traits for positive purposes.

Jealousy can consume our energies. We can covet our neighbor’s car, home, and lifestyle and ask, Why can’t I have what my neighbor has? Much of our economy is driven by ’’keeping up with the Joneses.’’ What we don’t realize is that the Joneses’ Lexus is what they need to fulfill their destiny, and our beat-up ’87 Chevy van is what we need to fulfill our destiny. Perhaps we need to grow in character by increasing our humility and learning to live with less. If we could just focus on our own destiny and stop being distracted by the destiny of others, we would be on a faster track to our own fulfillment.

If all values are from God and therefore innately good, where is the goodness in jealousy? It can motivate me to become the best person I can become. If, as we said, knowledge and wisdom are among the highest values and acquiring them enables us to develop a Godly intellect, then we are entitled and even encouraged to be jealous of the knowledge and wisdom of others, as the Talmud says: ’’Jealousy of Torah study leads to increased wisdom’’ (Tractate Bava Basra 22a).

Thus, we are allowed to use our natural feelings of jealousy and channel them into being jealous of those who have greater Torah knowledge than we do. This will propel us to spend more time in study and will thereby increase our own wisdom. This is a valid use of jealousy. I am humbled by the fact that my neighbor has more wisdom than me, and that propels me to study more. This turns the liability of jealousy into an asset as it propels me to greater intellectual achievement.

What about desire? Desire has its origins, ultimately, in a yearning to be close to my Source, God. The reason God created desire is in order to increase our longing for a relationship with God. However, since we are made up of a Godly soul and an earthly body, our bodily needs hijack the purity of the desire for God and redirect it toward earthly passions. Our goal, or our test, is to channel the desire we experience and use it to grow as a person. In this way, we connect this human emotion of desire with the purpose of life — to become the best person we can become. We do this by attaching ourselves to God’s standards of behavior and morality, which helps us get closer to God by improving our humanity and character. These standards are contained in the system of Judaism — which entails the performance of the Torah’s commandments.

On the eve of Passover we are not allowed to have any matzah so that we will be able to eat the matzah at the Passover Seder that evening b’tei’avon, with desire. On the night we left Egypt we had no time to allow the dough to rise, so we ate matzah instead of bread. Thus, eating matzah on the night of Passover is a way to relive and reconnect with the spirituality of the Exodus. This is a valid and justifiable use of desire — to perform the mitzvah of eating matzah with desire and passionate interest in connecting with our roots. This is an example of how we can channel our desires to connect with God through the performance of the commandments.

Honor and pride come from a holy source — promoting the honor of God. When I have a natural inclination to promote my own ego and interests, I need, once again, to put this attribute into the context of achieving my purpose in life — to become the best person I can be. This means channeling my ego away from self-interest and toward humility. Whenever I feel pride in myself I can remember that the ultimate use of honor is to honor God. Thus, my purpose in life is to increase kavod Shamayim — the honor of Heaven — by making a kiddush Hashem — sanctifying God’s Name. I can honor God by honoring His creations. When I give up my seat on a crowded bus to an elderly person, or let someone else in line ahead of me, or allow someone to cut ahead of me while driving from a side street — and smile as I do so — I am exercising humility and increasing God’s honor.

Home Run Tips

When I experience a desire for something, I have to ask myself: Will acting on this feeling help me grow as a person? Will this choice I am a faced with make me more human or more animalistic? I need to put a ’’check and balance’’ on my feelings and channel them toward being Godly.

Buy Step Up to the Plate by Rabbi Yisroel Roll at an online discount at www.targum.com.