People were biting their lips during the last game of the World Series, until the Giants finished the ninth inning and earned the championship for the third time in five years.
It was close. The score was tied in the early innings, and when the Giants pulled ahead of Kansas City by one run, they had to hold their tiny lead for five innings, which wasn’t easy. When Pablo Sandoval caught that foul pop up for the final out, he fell onto the ground as a sigh of exhausted relief mixed with the thrill of winning. What provided the excitement was the tension of not knowing what would happen at the end.
The World Series this year coincided with the Torah portions about Abraham and Sarah, the beginning of the story of our people. What makes this section different from the earlier stories of Creation and the Flood is that from here on, the Torah is about real people in real-life situations, when one never knows the outcome until it happens.
First, we have Abraham and Sarah setting off for a new home in a new land. In Canaan, they face famine, war and even an incident in which Sarah is taken by another man, one more powerful than Abraham. As soon as the two get out of that messy situation and settle down, there is trouble in the family. They want children, but they are barren, and Sarah’s solution — urging Abraham to have a child with Hagar, her servant — only adds to their problems. There is religious confusion and division in the family. All this in just one Torah portion.
In the weeks that follow, we will again be on the edge of our seats as we witness a knife over a precious boy’s throat, and Abraham banishing Hagar and Ishmael, his other son, to an unknown destiny. We hear stories of matchmaking and love, difficult pregnancies, sibling rivalry and disturbing deceit. We learn how Jacob’s trickery bounces back at him, and we witness Joseph being thrown into a pit by his own brothers. We feel the tension mount as the young shepherd now dressed in Egyptian finery faces his older brothers, and we watch his passive-aggressive testing to see if they’ve learned the lesson of family allegiance.
These are all stories about real life, and all are filled with tension. Tension sustains our interest because real life is filled with tension. The unknown is soon to be revealed, but not quite yet. Life is always played at the bottom of the ninth inning — when anyone can win — because the score can change with just one swing of the bat.
The Sayings of the Sages, Pirke Avot, advises us to make the changes we want in our lives now, for we never know what the future will bring. Yes, the sunrise each morning presents no surprise, but where will we be at the break of dawn tomorrow? With whom and doing what? Life has its share of surprises, keeping us wondering, “What’s next?” And the stories of the Torah remind us that it is the unknown that makes life real.
Yom Kippur was six weeks ago, and the fasting and prayers have receded to the back of our minds. But the lesson of that sacred day is one for the whole year — we don’t decide into which book our names will be inscribed, but we can decide what we want out of the life we are blessed to have now. We can’t do magic and return to our youth or change our past, but we can live life with the tools we do possess as long as we know what we want out of life. The game is not over, and until it is, we can choose what we do with tomorrow’s inning.
This ballgame is called life, so live it as best you can. Tension is what makes it real. So hit the ball. The crowd is cheering you on.
Rabbi Moshe Levin is the spiritual leader of Congregation Ner Tamid in San Francisco.