A Race to the Finish
The Chassidic Center in Boston is on Beacon Street.
Boston also has the zechus to host the famous
Boston marathon. I have witnessed it many times
because the porch of our house is on a spot where
the runners pass. But not just pass. We are located
at a very strategic position, two miles before the end of the
twenty-six-mile stretch.
The runners who lead the race, by the time they get to the
Chassidic Center, are almost sure to make it. I don’t sit on the
porch waiting for the runners to pass by, but there are people
at the center who, in their excitement, not only watch, but they
even call out the numbers of the runners.
On one occasion, while I was watching the race, it came to
me that this could be a big lesson on Torah and mitzvos. The
first runners give it all they can to make it to the finish line. In a
close race, they use the last bit of energy they possess to beat
the next guy and make it across the line ahead of him.
Those are the leaders. They will usually pass us about two
hours after the start of the race. So if the race began at twelve
o’clock, those runners will start coming by at around two. A
half-hour or so later, hundreds of runners will go past, one after
the other. They’ll be giving it everything they have to be
able to cross the finish line and be among the first twenty-five.
The next batch trying to cross the finish line might be among
the first fifty or the first hundred.
If you look out the window at four o’clock, two hours after
the leaders have passed, you will still see some runners.
Well, you couldn’t call them runners anymore, because
they’re not running; they can barely walk. They’ll make a supreme
effort, telling themselves, I’m not going to drop out two
miles before the finish line. I must get to the finish line. Four thirty
comes, five o’clock. I have to finish. I am not going to drop
out. You can see the agony, the pain in their legs. There is no
one around to cheer them on anymore.
What’s the mussar? If you are in the marathon, if you are in
the race, as difficult as it is, you are committed to reaching
your goal of getting to the finish line. You don’t drop out two
miles before the finish. It hurts like the dickens, but you are
not going to drop out. Hashem will help you.
Torah is a challenge that’s greater than making it to the finish
line. At times, there may be a lot of doubts going through one’s
mind, just like with those marathon runners. At times they
might think, Well, what difference does it make whether I am number
69 or 90? It’s all the same. But the goal is to finish and not just to be
another number. To the Yidden of the Torah world, to the
Yidden of the world of mitzvos, it’s not those who win the race
who are the real winners-it’s the one who doesn’t give up four
or five hours later and continues the race. That person is the winner.
We never really know who the true winners are. It’s not always
the greatest talmid chacham; it’s not always the greatest
masmid. It’s what you put into it when it hurts and you still go
on. A person should always feel that he can make it to the finish
line. The real finish line.
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