Scoring Goals

Summertime is in the air! Working with teenagers, I can sense the energy & enthusiasm as the school year comes to an end, with the summer break on the horizon. But while schools end and students begin s 3 month break from learning anything, Judaism teaches us that every moment of life is really a lesson. As the holy Baal Shem Tov taught: Every single thing that a person sees or hears, is an instruction to him in his conduct in the service of G‑d.


During a recent trip to Europe, I spent Shabbat in Prague. At Friday night dinner, there was a large group of Jewish NYU students who were studying abroad for the semester. When I was asked to speak, this idea of the Baal Shem Tov's teaching came to mind, and I thought back to an earlier segment of my trip in England.
There I had attended 2 soccer matches, where I was struck by the passionate enthusiasm of the fans in the stadium. Songs were chanted by children & adults alike, who had grown up rooting for their home team. Raucous cheers & groans seemed to exude from the stadium as if coming from one mouth (to avoid conflict among fans, European soccer teams strongly limit the amount of opponent's fans allowed to enter). It is definitely an interesting experience to observe fans going crazy over something as inconsequential as whether a person can successfully kick a ball into a goal.

But like the above mentioned teaching, there had to be something to learn from this situation. It's known that our souls descend to earth for a lifetime, however long. Each soul has a specific mission to complete in his or her particular situation, of rectifying the world and in service of G-d - charged with scoring a goal. But we're not alone in our missions here on earth. There are countless souls and angels watching us and cheering us on to succeed. We may not hear or feel them the same way that soccer players do, but they're there; from our grandparents and our ancestors to the greatest of our past leaders. They realize that today is not like it was, that challenges to leading a virtuous life in today's world are much harder than they once were. But the abundant stories and events brought in the Talmud, Midrash and Zohar show that our actions and life here have wondrous effects in the spiritual realms.

May we score lots of "goals" in our lifetime, and remember that however hard our situations in life may be, there are fans out there rooting for us with all their hearts to succeed.

Shabbat Shalom!