Gamblers Gambol through Life

The man sitting on the park bench facing the synagogue was very dejected. His tattered clothes looked as if he had slept in them, and his tired face was covered by a heavy growth. Overcome by pity for the derelict, the rabbi pressed a $10 bill into his hand and whispered, “Godspeed,” and was gone.
Several hours later the stranger came rushing into the rabbi’s study, and with great delight, threw a fistful of bills on the rabbi’s desk.
“Rabbi,” he exclaimed, “Godspeed paid 20 to one.”
There is a suggestive truth that leaps from this anecdote. Like the charitable rabbi, we are all gamblers, whether we actually realize it or not. Even those who have strong moral objections to gambling with money gamble all the time with much more precious stakes.
When we fall in love, we gamble. When we decide to have a child, we gamble. When we choose a particular college, we gamble. When we choose a career, we gamble. We don’t usually think of scientists as gamblers, but in the lab the odds against the researcher are often extremely high and the chips are long, hard sacrificial years, the very stuff of life itself.
In 1909 the German-Jewish chemist Paul Ehrlich discovered his “magic bullet,” the most effective cure for syphilis. He named the compound 606 because it had been preceded by 605 failures. The following year he was honored by his colleagues. When he rose to acknowledge their tributes of praise, Ehrlich said, “You say a great work of the mind, a wonderful scientific achievement. My dear colleagues, for seven years of misfortune I had one moment of good luck.”
His biographer writes of him: “At bottom Ehrlich was a gambler, as who of the great line of microbe hunters has not been?” Ehrlich bet on humanity, and his long shot finally paid off.
If we trace any blessing far enough back, we usually will find that we owe it to someone who gambled for it and won.
The Jewish people enjoy the blessing of freedom because Moses bet his life on it. Columbus discovered America because he bet his life on the belief that the world was round. More than we usually realize it, we owe so much to those who risked so much.
When we decide to live moral and ethical lives, we gamble. We bet on honesty to win over dishonesty, on kindness to prevail over cruelty, on justice to defeat injustice, on peace to conquer war, on faith to overcome despair.
We are as big as the things on which we bet our lives. So let’s place our bets carefully.
I invite you to join me at Beth Judah Temple (www.BethJudahTemple.org ). We are the only synagogue in Cape May County serving the community for more than 100 years. We specialize in spirited weekends of worship, socializing, noshing, singing, and learning. I will gamble on the fact that you will enjoy your time with us.  Please come and visit.