KI TISA 5782

Is That All There Is? No, You've Got a 2nd Chance!

Are you enjoying the Winter Olympics? Or are you one of those frustrated because all the regular tv shows you watch were cancelled until the Olympics are over? I must admit, I fall somewhere in between. I’m enjoying the skating competition and the amazing stunts on skis and snowboards, but the luge and especially curling get me scratching my head after only 3 or 4 minutes.

I was in favor of cancelling the Beijing Winter Olympics because frankly, China does not deserve all the attention and acclaim with its documented human rights abuses—especially by placing a million Uyghurs in internment camps.

And then th was the scandal of the doping of Russian Olympic athletes that began in the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics which disqualified them from competing for a while. They got around that by creating the ROC (Russian Olympic Committee) that would technically allow them to compete. But it’s all a farce! If you get caught cheating, you should not be allowed to compete, period!

The world watched this week as 15-year-old Russian figure skater, Kamila Valieva, faltered and mysteriously fell a couple of times in her final routine. She had shocked the world when she became the 1^st woman to ever land a quadruple jump in the Olympics in the singles free-skate team event. But her urine test—taken in December—showed she was doping and so the ROC gold for that event is now under scrutiny. My feeling is, coercing or, pressuring a child to use performance enhancing drugs is just inexcusable!

And then Russian speedskater Daniil Aldoshkin raised his hands high and then his middle fingers—seemingly in defiance—as he passed the finish line securing a medal for the ROC.

So, I wasn’t going to watch because all this is hardly the Olympic spirit of peace, harmony and friendly competition we expect. I wasn’t going to watch, but my yetzer hara (evil inclination) got the best of me and I did watch! Besides, there was nothing else to watch anyway.

So, here’s one observation from my watching that I’d like to share with you. One of the things that fascinated me was that—unlike all other events—in several of the snowboarding and skiing events, the athletes were given 3 takes to do their thing, and only the best of the 3 was counted. I watched this and I thought, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could have 3 tries—that’s 2 automatic do-overs—in the important events of our lives?” 

Let me tell you a story about one of the most famous do-overs. Remember the singer Peggy Lee and her most famous song, “Is That All There Is?” Well, that song took 37 takes to record. She was adamant to her brilliant and demanding Jewish songwriters Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, that she would do no more than 3 takes—but in the end, it took 37 to get it just right. Well, actually 36. Because according to Jerry Lieber in his book, she actually got it on that 36^th try—not just right, but perfect, transcendent, sultry, haunting, touching depths even the creators of the song couldn’t have imagined. And then they discovered—can you believe this—that the engineer forgot to hit the record button?!

“No one outside that studio ever heard take 36,” Lieber writes. “Take 37 was nothing short of marvelous. That’s the take the world knows today...It is good—it is, in fact, very, very good—but it is not, nor will ever be, take 36!”

This story—told as part of a presentation on Jewish songwriters at Atlanta’s Breman Jewish Museum—also sheds light on the momentous development of today’s Torah reading. Moses came down from Mt. Sinai holding 2 Tablets of the 10 Commandments given to him by Gd—one of which was not to worship idols. He heard the sounds of raucous dancing, and then he saw that the people were worshipping a Golden Calf! Overcome by rage and urgency, Moses threw down the Tablets—shattering them to pieces.

After all the dst settled and both punishment and forgiveness were bestowed by Gd, Moses returned to the mountain to receive the 10 Commandments again. This time, however, Gd commanded him (Ex. 34:1): P’sal l’cha shney luchot avanim (Carve for yourself 2 stone Tablets), v’chavti al haluchot (and I shall inscribe on the Tablets the words that were on the 1^st ones). After such a sin as worhipping a Golden Calf idol, it was astonishingly awesome that the Jewish people would get a 2^nd take at the 10 Commandments. But as remarkable as the 2^nd Tablets were, the original—hewn by Gd Himself—was something else again.

Rabbi Avraham Kook—the 1^st chief rabbi of the Jewish settlement in early 20^th century Israel and noted mystic—taught that what set the 1^st tablets apart was the complete unity experienced by the people Israel at the moment they were given. They were one with each other and one with Gd. After they were broken, this level of perfection was no longer possible.

But isn’t that the way it always is in life? Sometimes life gives us a 2^nd chance. It’s not always the same as before, but when it comes, we need to embrace it. Some of us may have hoped for a 2^nd chance at being better parents to our children. You can get that 2^nd chance. How? By openly and honestly expressing regret and become the parent now you never were.

Some of us may have hoped for a 2^nd chance with our parents? Did you spurn a mother or father...did you rebel or hurt or belittle them? You can wipe the slate clean and get a 2^nd chance. Become the child now you never were.

Some of us may have hoped for a 2^nd chance to renew a relationship on the rocks! Have you been at all selfish, intolerant or dismissive? Have you ruined a good relationship in the past that you now regret? What if you could do it all over again? What if you had a 2^nd chance in your marriage, what would you change? Well, make the change now. If not in your marriage, then in your next relationship.

Some of us have hoped for a 2^nd chance at our careers. Have you failed an assignment, botched up a job, made a bad impression? You can turn things around and begin again. Understand that none of these 2^nd chances will be the same as the 1^st time around. But they can be winners, nevertheless.

And so my friends, when we ask, like Peggy Lee, “Is that all there is?” We know the answer is, “No.” If we messed up and forgot to press the “record” button, we can do better the next time. It may not be the same, but like take 37, it can be wonderful. Ask Ayumu Hirano of Japan who only qualified for the gold in the men’s halfpipe on his 3^rd try. Amen!