FAITH BASED RUNNING: I AM A RUNNER
In the weekly Torah portion entitled Vayeishev
we have Joseph looking for his brothers in a place called Dothan. This took me
back to a race I ran some time ago:
I am a runner, have been one for 40 years or more. Not too fast… and half marathons are my top distance, but a runner, nevertheless.
Being a runner there is a verse in the Talmud
from Bava Kamma 92b that I particularly enjoy:
אינשי שיתין רהוטי רהוט ולא מטו לגברא דמצפרא כרך ואמרי
“And some say: "Sixty runners
ran, but they did not overtake the athlete who ate breakfast in the
morning".”
In
the discussion between the Sages, it is said that this Talmudic verse is derived
from Isaiah 49:10:
“They shall neither hunger nor thirst, nor shall the heat and the
sun smite them, for He Who has mercy on them shall lead them and by the springs
of water He shall guide them.”
These
words seem to parallel some verses in Psalm 121, another favorite of mine. They are equally
supportive of the runner –
1. A song for the ascents. I shall raise my eyes to the mountains, from
where will my help come?
3. He will not allow your foot to falter….
6. By day, the sun will not
smite you, nor will the moon at night.
8. The Lord will guard your
going out and your coming in from now and to eternity.
I took particular solace in this Psalm, the verses from the Talmud and from Isaiah during a very hot 10-K race. This
race started from the Samarian city of Dothan where Joseph was looking for his
brothers. For some reason the race began
late and not as scheduled. By the time we reached the race’s halfway point it
was already nightfall. Because of the
shoulder’s unevenness I ran on the edge of the road and stumbled on a reflector
but luckily regained my balance. There
was oncoming traffic and it was becoming a little dangerous. And to add to this
mix, just around the bend, looming up ahead on a long steep rise was the Arab
hilltop village of Imreihah.
The road began to wind; the
hills began to climb, and let me tell you, those hills were a killer, and so
was the heat. My breathing was ragged; I
was thirsty, my mouth was dry, and the muscles in my thighs were screaming. Imreihah
may have been quaint, like I really cared. I could not see much in the dark,
but I could make out the sullen faces of Imreihah’s residents. They lined the
road; I’m sure that the least they wished for was that we would be gone, and they were definitely
not happy to see our military escort…life in the Territories.
The race soon concluded. I was elated,
probably a dopamine high. There was plenty of water, popsicles and
apples. I was drenched in my own perspiration and sucked down a couple of
bottles of water in short order. For two more hours my mouth was dry and
I kept on drinking. On the train ride back to Nahariya, my home town , I got to
thinking: I had raised
my eyes to the mountains, where did my help come from?
It’s
a no-brainer; you know the answer
