A man recently told me this story. He’s in his 70s. He said that in the 1960s, there was a baseball player who played for the Yankees. His name was Mickey Mantle. Everybody in the 1960s was into this player. Everyone in New York, he was a superstar. He was unbelievable. In baseball, what’s considered an unbelievable accomplishment is when you hit 500 home runs. It could take 15, 20 years to get there. 500 home runs.
Mr. Mantle was stuck on 499 for 14 games. Finally, this man and his friend went to Yankee Stadium on May 14, 1967. He and his friend, two religious teenage boys, sat in the bleachers of Yankee Stadium. And sure enough, Mickey Mantle hit home run number 500. The stadium went crazy. Every person was standing on their chairs and jumping up and down. They couldn’t believe they were there to witness this historic moment. This man tells me, “I was sitting in the bleachers, and sitting in front of me were two men, 85 years old. Both men got up and stood on their seats and were jumping up and down at 85 years old for this ball that was hit over the fence.” He said, “And I turned to my friend and I said, ‘If I stay on this path, I’m going to look like them at 85.’ I am out.” He never went to a game again.
Today, he’s one of the Gedolei Roshei Yeshiva (great yeshiva heads) in America. He has influenced thousands. I’m not allowed to share his name, but he himself told me the story because sometimes you get an opportune moment where you realize, “This is not the trajectory I want to be on. This is not who I want to be.” And I’m not saying sports is the worst thing in the world, but this is not who I want to be. I don’t want to be obsessed with balls flying over fences. I don’t want this to define my life. As a teenager, he said, “I am going to change the trajectory of my life. I’m going to start to create a momentum of Kedushah (holiness).” There are thousands of students who are thankful today because of that powerful decision.
Just like I am thankful today for my mother-in-law’s powerful decision that Friday night. That decision made in innocence. That decision made before she even knew what religion looked like. That decision made when a person just decides to take one step, having no clue what that can lead to. Moshe Rabbeinu tried with the Meraglim (spies) and said, “Have the confidence to take the right step, because you could create a momentum that would lead the Jewish people into Eretz Yisrael (Israel).” Now you can do this. Get up and do it. They didn’t have the courage to, and because of that, they created an escalator way further downward. The Jewish people had to meander around in the desert for another 38 years because of a few people who allowed the momentum downward. Continue that way.
But you, as a Jew, have this power. You have the strength. You have the spark. And you have the holiness to be able to create a power that many people don’t know exists. The power of... The power of... When he sprays the blood upward to counter all of the forces that are downward. The power that Moshe Rabbeinu was asking the Jewish people to have when they left Har Sinai: Please take the steering wheel and turn it around. The power that, if you are young, and even if you are not so young, you need to know. Because no, you don’t know where you could go. You don’t know what you can accomplish. You don’t know how much you can change, and you don’t know the impact you can have on others. But what you’re required to know is this incredible power that we as a nation have: that Hashem tells us that if you take one step, you have no idea how far the momentum of Kedushah can go.