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June 17, 2023
Author(s): Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz,
Parashat Sh’lach L’chah
June 17, 2023 — 28 Sivan 5783
A Story. A Coda. A Second Coda.
Temple Emanuel, Newton, MA
I want to tell you a story that has a coda and a second coda.
The context is college baseball. If college baseball is not your thing, if you have never followed college baseball, not to worry. The story, which I heard on ESPN Daily Podcast, is about life.
There is a college in North Carolina called Wake Forest, which has a historically mediocre baseball team called the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. The team last won the College World Series 70 years ago.
In 2010 a man named Tom Walter became the coach at Wake Forest. The lifeblood of college athletics is recruiting star high school athletes. In Columbus, Georgia there was a star outfielder named Kevin Jordan. In baseball parlance, Kevin Jordan was a 5-tool player. He could do everything that is required to shine on a baseball diamond: hit to get on base, hit for home runs, run, throw, and play superb defense. As a teenager Kevin Jordan was one of the most highly recruited high school baseball stars. He was drafted by the New York Yankees. He was courted by the most powerful and prestigious college baseball programs, which Wake Forest was not. And he was courted by Tom Walter, the new coach of Wake Forest. As Tom Walter would put it, calling Kevin Jordan was his first call.
As college coaches in all sports do, Tom Walter paid a recruiting visit to the Jordan home, meeting this young star outfielder and his parents. Tom Walter promised the parents: if Kevin comes to Wake Forest, I will take care of your child. I will watch over him. Both Kevin Jordan, and his parents, believe Tom Walter. The family made the surprising, unexpected decision to say no to the New York Yankees; to say no to the college powerhouse programs; and to say yes to a mediocre college baseball program that had last won a College World Series in the 1950s. They did so based on their intuition that Tom Walter was a mensch.
Roll the film forward. In Kevin Jordan’s senior year in high school, he started to lose weight. He could not eat. He could not hold anything down. He became slower, weaker. He went to lots of doctors, and they could not diagnose his problem. Meanwhile, his performance on the baseball diamond dropped precipitously.
That fall he went to Wake Forest to begin his freshman year. He no longer looked or acted like the superstar athlete he once was. He was very sick. At last he was diagnosed with having a rare auto immune kidney disease. He was in kidney failure. He took 35 pills a day, and was on dialysis three times a week, just to be able to stay alive. The only way he would survive is if he were to get a kidney transplant.
But there was a problem. There is far greater need for kidneys than availability of kidneys. If a person needs a kidney transplant, but does not have a kidney donor, they go on a list, which is very crowded with other people who also need kidneys. Kevin Jordan did not have time. If he did not get a kidney, he was not going to survive.
All the members of his family were tested, but there was no match. Tom Walter stepped up and said: I’ll get tested. Long story short, Tom Walter was a match, and when he discovered that he was a match, he did not hesitate. He agreed immediately that he would donate one of his kidneys to Kevin Jordan.
And so, on February 7, 2011, at Emory University, Tom Walter donated his kidney to Kevin Jordan. Within 15 minutes of the transplant, Kevin Jordan started feeling better. Within one month he was back to school. As soon as he was cleared by his doctors to resume athletic activity, Kevin Jordan started working out to try to rebuild his life as a baseball player.
The story—before the coda and the second coda—ends with Kevin Jordan alive because he now had his coach Tom Walter’s kidney. Kevin Jordan would go on to play baseball for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. And yet, while he was on the team, his baseball performance itself was a disappointment compared to the great expectations that flowed from his high school performance before he had been sick.
Now comes the first coda. In the summer of 2020, our nation is roiled by the murder of George Floyd and the protests that ensued. There is a national conversation about race, racism, police brutality, equity and inclusion. One day Tom Walter is asked by a friend, wait a minute, were you able to give your kidney to a black person? Kevin Jordan is black. How could that work? Could a black person receive a white person’s kidney? That conversation prompted Tom Walters and Kevin Jordan to create an organization called Get in the Game, where they would tell their story of the white coach who donated his kidney to his black player, and their mantra was “My blood and his blood are the same.” Tom Walter and Kevin Jordan would take their story on the road, talking to fellow citizens in the wake of George Floyd’s murder about healing the racial divide in our country. That’s the first coda.
Here is the second coda. Wake Forest, which last won the College World Series 70 years ago, is now among the best teams in college baseball and is headed to the World Series for the first time since the 1950s.
Here is my question: what is the relationship, if any, between the story, the coda, and the second coda? Is there a causal connection? Is there a causal connection between menschlikeit and success on the baseball field?
In Pirkei Avot, Ben Azzai teaches mitzvah goreret mitzvah v’aveirah goreret avairah. One mitzvah, one act of decency, leads to another. So too an act of indecency leads to another. Positive energy leads to positive energy. Negative energy leads to negative energy.
Ben Azzai is telling us that the days of our lives are interconnected; the chapters of our lives form a book; our past becomes our present which will become our future. It’s all connected. What we did yesterday will shape what we do today and what we will do tomorrow. Our life is an energy force field. Our question is: what kind of energy are we radiating out into the universe? The positive energy we radiate will come back to us. The negative energy we radiate will come back to us.
How did Wake Forest go from mediocre for 70 years to the College World Series this year? Could it be that young high school baseball stars, and their parents, heard about the menschlikeit of Tom Walter? Could it be that when they heard prospective college coaches say “I will take care of your child” that they thought of the fact that here is a coach who literally gave his kidney to a player, and they decided they wanted to play for him? Could it be that his goodness generated trust which generated energy for his program, which inspired star players to go to his program, which caused his team to play better on the field, which caused more star players to play for this menschy coach, a whole virtue cycle? Could it be that in a time of divide, parents and players were drawn to a coach whose mission is to heal divides, to build bridges, to unify our nation?
Our story generates our coda which generates our second coda.
Years ago I was at a milestone birthday party for a woman who was turning 60. People were offering their well wishes. It was all very nice. And then her nephew spoke. He had flown through the night, he took a red eye, to be there for that moment, and then he was heading back home right after the party. He said let me tell you why I flew through the night to be here for this moment. When I was in high school, I dreamed of playing college basketball. I was at the McDonald’s tournament for aspiring high school basketball players. Coaches and scouts were there. This was the moment to make it or not make it. I had trained my whole life for this moment. When it was my turn to get on the court, I jumped high for a rebound, came down awkwardly, fell to the ground, and injured my shoulder. I was out of the game and taken to the emergency room of a local hospital. My big moment came, and I was injured. After the ER bandaged my ailing shoulder, I went to the airport to fly home. To add insult to injury, my flight was delayed for four hours. There I was at the airport, on the floor of the terminal, with a broken shoulder, in a sling, with my dreams destroyed. It was the lowest moment of my life. I felt all alone. And then, out of the middle of nowhere, you, my aunt celebrating her 60th birthday today, you appeared to give me a gentle hug, to sit with me, to be with me, to listen to me, to let me cry on your shoulder. At my lowest moment, you were there for me. That is why there is literally nothing in this universe that would stop me from being here for you now.
Every story generates a coda. Showing up generates showing up. Supreme menschlikeit generates supreme attraction. What energy is flowing from you now? Shabbat shalom.