Comments (0)Taking The Punch
September 18, 2009Meredith Jacobs
Special to the Jewish Times
I started boxing last spring. Not sparring, but an exercise class, with push-ups, sit-ups, jumping rope, hitting a bag — all while wearing boxing gloves. And there is something about wrapping the boxing wraps around my hands that makes me feel strong, that connects me with an inner strength I’ve never felt before.
My new appreciation for the sport led me to two books I would not have picked up otherwise — “Barney Ross,” about the Hall of Fame Jewish boxer, and “The Challenge of the Soul,” by Rabbi Niles Goldstein, about his journey as a spiritual warrior.
Ross and the other great Jewish boxers are unknown to my generation. We were taught that Jews are scholars. When Rabbi Goldstein writes about wrapping tefillin, I picture an archer’s or a boxer’s wraps reinforcing his body for battle and I wonder what we’ve lost spiritually by disconnecting from our warrior past.
So I called Rabbi Goldstein. He explained that we have lost the crossover in the disciplines of the religious life and the physical life. We’ve lost how spirituality reaches its highest form when it’s holistic — that which involves the mind, the heart and the body.
Right now, we’re just talking to our heads and it doesn’t work. Think of shuckeling while davening, prostrating during Aleinu or fasting — these are not just symbolic gestures. Their physical effect produces feelings appropriate for the prayer.
Rabbi Goldstein recounts having to “fight tooth and nail” to convince his mother to allow him to play high school football. The story is all too familiar; we’ve produced several generations of Jewish men who have missed out on learning to take a punch.
It is important to get knocked down, to learn not only you can get back up but also that you have to. We’re doing a disservice to our kids when we shield them from physical activities that lead to discomfort. Being vulnerable helps us become wiser, more hopeful people.
A spiritual warrior fights for his or her spiritual connection. It brings to mind the new book, “Spiritual Boredom: Rediscovering the Wonder of Judaism,” by Dr. Erica Brown. We are responsible for our boredom. Someone else cannot enlighten us; we can only do this through hard work. I think of the complaint heard so often this time of year — how boring High Holiday services are, sitting for many hours, uninterested and unconnected.
Rabbi Goldstein hears this all the time. “It’s a cop-out,” he notes, because most of life is boring and tedious. Like work. But we go there because we need the paycheck or for those moments in between that are exciting.
“Marx was wrong,” Rabbi Goldstein illuminates. “Religion is not the opiate of the masses. Religion is a way of understanding the mysteries of life. It gives us tools to master the adversities of life. Unconsciously, we understand that these are the holiest days of the year and come in expecting some sort of transformative, Sinai-like experience. When the bar is set that high, we come away disappointed. Lower the bar. Paradoxically, it’s going to be more powerful.”
So, from one Jewish warrior to another, I challenge us to put on our wraps and gloves, to open ourselves up to the punch, to battle for our own spiritual connection. I wish you a healthy New Year. And I wish you strength.
Meredith Jacobs is the author of “The Modern Jewish Mom’s Guide to Shabbat” and co-author with her daughter Sofie of “Just Between Us: A Journal for Mothers and Daughters” (Chronicle Books, spring 2010).