REEY 5779

This is Labor Day weekend. It’s a time we pay homage to the honor and dignity of honest labor. It is such labor that built this—as Michal Medved is fond of saying—the greatest country on Gd’s green earth. And so to celebrate Labor Day today, I would like to speak about retiring!

I’ve been asked by colleagues who have contemplated or who have indeed retired, when do I think I am going to retire? I recall having this same discussion with Rabbi Arnold Goodman of the AA when he was in his middle 70s, and I asked him when he thinks he will retire? I was so impacted by his response that I never forgot it. He said, “I will retire when it stops being fun!”

What does that mean? To me it meant that as long as he felt he was making a meaningful contribution he would stay. Otherwise he would leave and find some other way to contribute.

You see, one should never retire from life. Rabbi Goodman eventually retired from the AA to Israel, but he continues to be active and prolific in his 90s. I tell my colleagues that I’m never going to retire—not now and probably not ever. I love being your rabbi too much, and besides, I can’t afford to retire.

Did you hear the story of the retired guy who goes to the doctor and says, “Doc, I ache all over. Everywhere I touch it hurts?”

The doctor replies, “OK. Touch your elbow.” The guy touches his elbow and winces in genuine pain.

The doctor, surprised, then says, “Touch your head.”

The guy touches his head and jumps in agony. The doctor asks him to touch his knee and the same thing happens. Everywhere this guy touches he hurts.

The doctor is stumped and orders a complete battery of tests with X-rays and blood tests. He then tells the guy to come back in 2 days.

2 days later the guy comes back and the doctor tells him, “We’ve thoroughly reviewed all the tests and we think we’ve found your problem.”

“What is it?” asks the retiree.

“You’ve broken your finger!”

You may be tired after 40 years of working, of doing the same sort of things—and that finger hurts—so you retire. If so, get it through your head that even though you may retire, you’re not dead! Find something meaningful to do with your time.

Someone who is facing this challenge at a surprisingly young age is Andrew Luck—star quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts. This week, Luck suddenly announced his retirement from football at the age of 29! 

Luck held a press conference explaining that he spent a good part of his career dealing with injuries and rehab—and it was taking a big toll on him. But fans and analysts didn’t let him off the hook so easily. TV analyst Doug Gottlieb tweeted, “retiring ‘cause rehabbing is ‘too hard’ is the most millennial thing ever,” and similar comments were made about what being a true athlete really means.

According to the NY Times (8/27/19): Athletes’ retirements are unusual. The delusions of invincibility that help players climb to spectacular sporting heights are often the same delusions that find them hanging around for too long. Few of them ever actually choose to walk away till it’s too late and they’re injured. This partly explains why many fans booed Luck. He had violated the cardinal norm of sports culture—namely, playing through the pain—after a career of fidelity to it. But more and more players are smartening up and walking away while they still can—as seen in the more than $1 billion law suit brought by players with brain injuries against the NFL. The biggest problem with the lawsuit was getting retirees to overcome their attachment to their mythical manliness and admit something is wrong.

In today’s Torah Portion (Deut. 14:22–27) we learn about the mitzvah of ma’aser sheni (the 2^nd tithe)—a commandment to set aside 1/10^th of one’s produce, to be consumed “before Hashem in the place He shall choose to cause his name to dwell there”—Jerusalem. If it’s too difficult to transport his produce, the Torah teaches, he can sell it and bring the money and spend it on food there. I think it’s kind of cool that there is a special mitzvah for us to come to Gd’s holy city just to hang out with Him there for a while.

Menachem Mendel Hagar (She’eyrit Menachem) notes (R. Josh Flug blog) the peculiar phrase, v’tzrta hakesef b’yadecha (and you should bind the money to your hand and bring it), suggests that the Torah is teaching us a lesson about money. Money should be in our hands, meaning that we control how we spend it. In other words, we control our money; it does not control us.

Andrew Luck walked away from hundreds of millions of dollars on the field and from endorsements. It’s a cliché, but like all clichés, it’s true. He realized that there are more important things in life than money. Sure, it’s easier to do that after already making $100 million as Luck did, but we all have it in our means to look at money in the same way. If we see money as a means to supporting our family, if we see money as a means to give tzedakah, if we see money as a means to make the world a bit brighter and happier place for others…we can put our relationship with money in our hands and Hashem just might then have reason to give us more for we are doing His work.

So was Andrew Luck right in retiring at such a young age? Of course! He was thinking more about his family than his ego. He had enough money already, what he wanted more than anything was to have a life, a real life—a life free from pain.

Life is full of variables—ups and downs, tensions and resolution. The key is to be able to look at your life, embrace it and celebrate it—no matter what challenges life throws at you. Celebrating life means that you wake up every day and say, Modeh ani l’fanecha, “I’m thankful for the gift of life that Hashem has given me. I’m excited about this life. I won’t look over my shoulder wondering who’s going to hit me next, or where the next curve ball will come from. But I’m going to use my time carefully and make it mean something.”

My friends, today is Rosh Chodesh Elul—the beginning of the month before Rosh Hashanah. It’s the month we begin preparing to be judged on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. There is no better preparation we can do than to reassess how we spend our resources—our money and our time—with the knowledge that like the mitzvah of the 2^nd tithe, v’tzrta hakesef b’yadecha—your resources—your money, your time is in your hands. We control how we spend it. May Hashem help us to choose wisely. Amen!