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Greatest gamble in life is to risk nothing at all
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The holiday season is again with us. For many the economy has dampened spirits. Many believe that Wall Street was just a giant rigged casino.
Yet as a rabbi, I do urge you to gamble. Indeed, take audacious risks. Gamble with money, gamble with relationships, gamble with spirituality.
The most important gamble in human history occurred at creation. The gambler was God.
When Adam and Eve ate from the fruit, they did not die, as foretold. God took a chance on humanity's future righteousness. When the angels told God not to create humans because we will lie, God gambled saying: "Truth which refuses to create, to take a chance, to lose once in a while, is not Truth." (Midrash)
In this season of Hanukah and Christmas, we ignore the calamitous market. Be inspired to take chances -- financial, social, and spiritual and to rededicate ourselves to God and our fellows.
First: Take a financial gamble. Give to charities. The Talmud tells us giving is the best preservative for our assets.
Second: It's time to gamble on our families and friends, on our most fundamental relationships. Mend fences. Reconcile.
Third: When it comes to our spiritual lives, gamble. Learn. Grow. Of what value is spirituality unexamined? Of what value is a religion that substitutes ritual for thought, scenery for substance, rote for re-examination? Hanukah is about rededication and Christmas is about being born anew.
God gambled. The Maccabees gambled. To gamble is to risk failure. The greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
Shalom.
Rabbi Arthur Segal
Hilton Head Island
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