“Impossible is Nothing”

is the title of a current publicity campaign created by Adidas. 

It features athletes who have overcome challenges and have succeeded beyond their wildest expectations despite the formidable tests they needed to overcome. 

One of the athletes featured in the campaign is Beatie Deutsch, diminutive marathon runner, a 31 year old Orthodox mother of five, who began running at the age of 25. In 2018 Beatie Deutsch was the first placed Israeli in the Jerusalem marathon and in 2019 she won first place in the Israeli National  Championships with a time that was the the fifth best result of all time for Israeli female runners. 

All the while running in a skirt!

In 2020 she qualified for Olympic ranking as one of the top 80 women runners in the world. 

However when the Tokyo Olympics was postponed due to Covid the women’s marathon was moved from Sunday to Saturday which precluded her participation as she is Shabbat observant and could not run on Shabbat. 

She appealed the change but was denied by the IOC. 

There have been plenty of challenges in Beatie’s race to stardom, but she perseveres with faith and determination. 

Just two days ago she suffered another major disappointment. 

After training intensively, being completely prepared and in peak physical condition, Beatie ran the first half of the Berlin marathon in top form. 

And then her body gave out. She was able to complete the race but it was a disaster. Her body  gave way and she later found out that she had contracted Covid which completely sapped her strength. 

All of her intensive training was for nought. 

Her hopes and dreams were dashed in a moment. 

In a recent post on the subject

Beatie shared a powerful insight

“Our lives are a patchwork of highs and lows, victories and setbacks. There is so much we can’t control but what we can always control is the theme song running throughout. Do we embrace the challenges in our life and view them as an opportunity to become stronger.”

We have just completed our own marathon, the High Holiday season of prayer, introspection, reflection and serious bouts of eating which has now come to the finish line. 

The black ribbon of highway of the coming year stretches before us and we hope that our “training” has prepared us for the hills and dales that will appear. 

The days after the holidays we are coming down from that spiritual pinnacle and we hope to take some of that  energy and incorporate that into our daily lives.

This week we also begin the Torah anew as we embark on the first Portion, Breishit , which includes the narrative of creation culminating in the creation of Adam and Eve, the pinnacle of creation. 

Yet as the story unfolds, it takes no time at all and they commit a sin which devastates the original plan of the world. Despite the huge departure from the potential for greatness, Gd reaches out to Adam and Eve with a one word question “Ayeka” where are you?

Where is the wholeness and perfection that was initially created?

Gd is calling out to the first people and subsequently to all people urging us to wholeness, to becoming the best version of ourselves. 

We all go through spiritual stages of growth just as children go through physical stages of development. And if a child doesn’t meet those physical milestones we will evaluate and provide assistance. 

Rabbi Shimshon Pincus, an American Torah teacher of note who lived in Israel, teaches us that if we don’t grow and learn from our life experiences we have missed the point of life itself. He compares it to a storekeeper who spends his day moving the merchandise from display to display without ever earning any money. 

When the first human was created Gd showed the entire world and its beauty, and we were given the charge to elevate the world. The Zohar or Kabbalah tells us that each of us are mini worlds that can be dedicated to service of improving the world. 

Ayeka? Where are we? 

Perhaps that can be the theme song!

Each of us is unique and has the capacity to serve Gd and make the world a better place in our own personal way. 

Perhaps we may be drawn to a specific Mitzva that will inspire us, that will be our unique work in this world. We don’t compare ourselves to others (I for one will not be running any marathons in the near future)but we can aspire to reach our own personal destiny, continuing to run forward, picking ourselves up despite the challenges that may come our way and striving to create a world of purpose, meaning and kindness. 

Beatie Deutsch may have become an international superstar due to her athletic prowess. But to me she is a megastar because she answered her own personal Ayeka and created a theme song of her own making. She allowed her convictions to guide her and she permitted her disappointments to shape her into the ever evolving best version of herself. Recognizing that these experiences were not impediments but part of the perfectly engineered Master Plan designed for her. 

Impossible is nothing when the lessons of challenges overcome are the building blocks of becoming. 

That is the making of a champion!

Shabbat Shalom and so much love!