In 1988, the Olympics were held in Seoul, South Korea. Each host country gets to choose a new sport to include, which is how curling, an obscure mix of shuffleboard and housekeeping most of us have never heard of, came to join the halls of Olympic fame when Canada hosted. When Seoul hosted, however, they added a sport most of us are familiar with—table tennis.
Most of us know table tennis by the name “Ping-Pong,” but as I recently learned, Ping-Pong is a brand name which has become synonymous with its product like Kleenex, Q-tips and Band-Aids. You may ask why such a simple game which doesn’t seem to require much strength or skill would be worthy of an international competition—and you would not be alone. But, in many parts of the world, this competition is watched with great interest, and millions of people keep their eyes on the ball.
However, not since the introduction of that sport to worldwide scrutiny have as many people been interested in Ping-Pong balls as they are this week. You see, there has been no winner in the Powerball lottery for the past 10 weeks and millions and millions of people are dreaming of winning the jackpot, currently over a BILLION dollars. The lottery signs are all stuck at $999 million because they never dreamed that a lottery would get this big. Meanwhile, the fate of the lucky winner lies in the numbers printed on those little white Ping-Pong balls.
Costing perhaps pennies each, these little balls of celluloid are driving people to pour money into the lottery system for a chance at hitting the big time. All eyes are focused on them and what they represent—a life-changing win even if you have to split it.
Now, by the time you read this, the odds are there will be a winner. Based on history, the odds are also pretty good that it will be some homeless guy with no teeth who’s been living on the streets since 1984, or some poor farmer with no teeth who was about to lose the family farm. But, despite the odds, many of the rest of us (who do have teeth) can’t help buying a ticket just to give Hashem a chance to see that the money won’t spoil us.
Despite the fact that week after week the buyers have lost their money, the interest has grown. That’s because each time we fail to win, the jackpot goes up, making the elusive win more lucrative and therefore more attractive. We are drawn to participate.
I don’t think anyone will say that buying the occasional lottery ticket is gambling, but remember that since Hashem is running the show, you really only need to buy one ticket. As a spot-on Jewish raffle campaign in England once said, “It’s 50-50 odds. Either you’ll win or you won’t.”
People have been making deals with themselves, bargaining with Hashem about what they’ll do with the money if He lets them win. One fellow said, “If I win $1,300,000,000 in the Powerball lottery I will give a quarter of the money to Tzedaka! (I’m not sure what I’ll do with the other $1,299,999,999.75).”
We’ve promised to support yeshivos and wipe out tuition problems and give people jobs and buy ambulances. They are all good things but we’re forgetting that most of us were NOT put on earth to sit back and do nothing. For all our good intentions, Hashem simply may not want us to be ridiculously wealthy.
All that aside, though, the ticket-buying frenzy made me think. Winston Churchill said, “Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.” After winning World War II as Britain’s prime minister, Mr. Churchill was summarily voted out of office. He went on to become a professor and best-selling author. When he was down, he certainly was not out.
Despite the fact that people have bought lottery tickets and lost repeatedly, the prospect of winning keeps them going. And that’s what I think can make us all winners.
Life is full of challenges. We get disappointed, knocked down, and we feel like losers. We question ourselves, our circumstances and the point of going on. But we can learn the lesson of the lottery. Just because we didn’t win this time doesn’t mean we won’t win next time, and even if we don’t win, that doesn’t make us losers, because it’s out of the ordinary to win that way.
If we can learn to keep going, keep trying and not get discouraged in whatever it is we deem worthwhile, then even if our numbers never come up, we will have truly hit the jackpot.
Jonathan Gewirtz is an inspirational writer and speaker whose work has appeared in publications around the world. You can find him at www.facebook.com/RabbiGewirtz and follow him on Twitter @RabbiJGewirtz. He also operates JewishSpeechWriter.com, where you can order a custom-made speech for your next special occasion. Sign up for the Migdal Ohr, his weekly PDF dvar Torah in English. E-mail [email protected] and put “Subscribe” in the subject.
By Rabbi Jonathan Gewirtz
