Parshat Nitzavim: Rosh HaShana and the Zen of Tennis
With the recent completion of The US Open tennis tournament, the tennis season has come to an unofficial end. Whenever I watch the pros it makes me aware of how bad I am. And I am not talking about the men – they are in a completely different tennis universe. No, I mean the women. It amazes me that some little, skinny teenager can hit the ball way harder and with tons more pace than me. Which just goes to show that it’s more about form than strength.
The reason I like playing tennis is because of the competition. It pushes me to exercise more than I would ever do on my own. I might be tired and running out of gas , but when I am trying to beat my opponent, then all of sudden I will discover a second gear. If I were doing any other regular fitness program I probably wouldn’t push myself the same way.
But the biggest reason I love tennis is that there is really no one else to turn to or blame when trying to win. It’s an exercise of pure responsibility for and about yourself. The wind, the sun, the court conditions – everything is the same for you and the fellow on the other side of the net. He faces the same wind gusts, the same heat, the same humidity and the same sun in the eyes when he tosses the ball to serve.
If you’re playing on second rate courts with cracks, or clay courts with clumps that slows the ball down and gives it funny bounces, your opponent has those self-same challenges. There are no quarterbacks, no lineman, no receivers, no goalies, no pitchers and no teammates to blame. It is you versus your adversary, mano a mano. This being the case, if you are both of a similar level of play, there is no greater expression of will, choice, discipline, consistency and psychological fortitude that determines if you win or lose.
And so it goes for Rosh Hashana. Rosh HaShana is יום הדין Yom HaDin Judgment Day. It is the birthday of Mankind and God judges each and every person and decides if they are deserved of another year. And if so, how that year is going to go. Will it be good or difficult? Prosperous or impoverished? Full of joy or full of pain? Or maybe a combination of any of these.
And when we come before the Judge, we come alone. There is nobody else to turn to. It is you and your life. You and your past. You and your successes. You and your failures. You and God – alone. No wind and no sun to distract, and no teammates to fall back on.
There is no greater power than the power of personal responsibility. God waits for us to choose and then comes through, or not as the case may be. The old “man proposes, God disposes” truism. But we must first do the choosing. As Rav Matis Weinberg has pointed out – Rosh HaShana is not only about judgment on the choices that we have made, but also about how much choosing we have done. It is about being a chooser. About being a person who is willing to will.
Because in Grand Slam tennis, just like in life, when it comes down to the fifth set and you’ve played for over four hours with an opponent who is going toe-to-toe with you, and your legs feel like Jello, and you are beginning to cramp, and you feel like you can’t go on – it is no longer a question of skill but one of will. Who will exhibit the greater willingness to keep going. To keep fighting. To keep playing. To not give up and not give in. To not roll-over and die. To choose Life, as it says in this week’s parsha, ובחרת בחיים “You shall choose Life!”
Rosh HaShana is Judgement Day. Buts it’s not just Judgement Day for our deeds and actions of good versus bad – nobody is perfect and God doesn’t expect as much. But also Judgement Day on our sheer willingness to choose. Because when all is said and done, that’s all we have. Our ability and willingness to choose.
Many years ago when Andy Murray won the US Open, he said it took him ten years of hard work to get there. For us it will take just as much time or more. But Greatness and Life itself awaits – something even greater than winning a Grand Slam tennis tournament.
I said we’re all gonna die but I’ll never believe it
I love this world and I don’t wanna leave it…
I said life is a tale, it begins and it ends
And forever’s a word that we can’t understand
Well I know that my life’s better when we’re together
So why can’t our story just go on Forever?
– Lord Huron
