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And the Winner Is...
You
Read and Decide!
It happened at Armenia’s prestigious Demirchyan Sports Complex. Ten
thousand people crowded the stands on November 25th for the opening ceremonies
of the 2012 Youth World Boxing Championship - thousands remained outside
for lack of space.
 |
| Demirchyan Sports Complex in Armenia |
Young contestants from 70 nations flew in for the
event. Israel sent a small delegation of some eight boxers, each the national
champion in his weight class.
Akiva Finkelstein (18) from Bet El, is Israel’s light
welterweight (up to 140 lbs) champion. Born to Baruch – a
published Torahscholar and real estate agent, and Michal – a midwife at a Jerusalem hospital, Akiva
viewed the boxing schedule upon arrival and saw that his first fight was set
for Saturday night.
Bet El's Akiva Finkelstein at a Boxing Match
Being a religious Jew, Akiva and his father had faced many
difficult halachic (Jewish legal) dilemmas at previous tournaments. Kosher food
was always an issue. Other boxers delved into lavish
steak dinners, while the Finkelsteins sufficed with fresh vegetables and canned kosher
foods.
The standard procedure at boxing tournaments is to weigh in on the first day to assure that each contestant is within his designated weight class.
But soon after arrival in Armenia, Akiva saw that
the rules were slightly different. He immediately emailed his
father stating that a new halachic problem had arisen: the
boxers had to weigh in on the same morning of any scheduled fight. For Akiva,
this meant getting on the electric scale on Saturday morning, the Jewish Shabbat
(Sabbath), when
orthodox Jews refrain from actively using electricity.
Baruch joined his son in Armenia on Wednesday. He began negotiating with those in charge to try and have
Akiva weighed in on Friday afternoon, before the onset of the Sabbath. The
authorities wouldn't bend.
Baruch patiently explained the problem to a high
official in the Int’l Boxing Association. After spending all the money to
participate in the event and in view of the extenuating circumstances, Baruch
told his son that if someone picks him up and places him on the scale while
Akiva remains completely passive (in Jewish Law, this is called grama), that he
could then weigh in on Saturday morning. The high official agreed to this
arrangement, awkward as it was.
Come Saturday morning, Akiva’s turn to get on the scale arrived.
The high official who agreed to the special arrangement was there. But when the
big boss of the event saw what was going on, he intervened to stop it. “The boy
has to step on to the scale,” the man in charge said.
The high official who wanted to accommodate told Baruch, “It’s my boss. I can’t overrule him.”
The otherwise simple procedure of weighing in fighters came
to a halt, a verbal exchange began, and the room became quiet. Baruch argued
his son’s case – the case of Judaism. Other board members expressed
their opinion: “If it’s a religious issue and in the final analysis the Israeli
contestant would fulfill our guidelines of being weighed on the same morning of
the fight, so what do we care? Let’s comply with his request and place him on
the scale.”
The boss heard them, was leaning towards agreeing, but then
posed a question to Baruch. “These Jewish laws are centuries old, right? Then
how did they know about electricity back then? It hadn't been invented yet! What kind of a religion is this?”
Baruch wasn’t about to engage in a one-on-one
study session with the big boss from Wales, England about the intricacies of electricity
usage on the Sabbath in Jewish Law.
The boss made up his mind: “This Is utterly and completely absurd.
I’ve never heard of anything like this in all my boxing years. And besides, what if this sets a precedent, and then maybe
there will be a heavy guy who we can’t pick up. Forget this whole thing.”
Turning to Baruch, he made his final call: “Your son either gets on the scale, or we disqualify him from his match tonight. He'll be out of the championship.”
 |
| Akiva at the Shavei Hevron Yeshiva (Seminary for Jewish studies) |
The Israeli coach turned to the Finkelsteins and said, “How
can you back out of this? Had we known, we would have brought someone else from
Israel to represent us in this weight class. You can’t just disqualify
yourself over stepping on the stupid scale. No way!”
Akiva began boxing when he was ten. From the outset, his
coaches recognized his potential and said that if he works hard, he would represent
Israel in the world championship when he turned 18. For eight years, Akiva had
worked every single day for this moment.
His father even flew him to New York every summer to
practice at Gleason’s World Famous Boxing Gym in Brooklyn. This is where
Muhammed Ali trained along with many world boxing champions.
In addition to being a prize student in his Torah and secular studies, Akiva
was completely focused on the 2012 World Championship for most of his childhood.
It was his main aspiration.
And here the long-awaited moment had arrived and was in jeopardy
over what appeared to all onlookers to be a trivial religious issue.
Baruch didn’t want to decide for his son. Akiva had sacrificed
8 years of his free time for this moment, and Baruch wasn’t going to be the one
to take it away from him.
The room was completely quiet. The boss from Wales had given
his final ultimatum. Baruch and all eyes were turned to 18-year-old Akiva.
Akiva tilted his head
down and said, “I’m not getting on the scale. I can’t do it.”
The Int’l Boxing
Association board promptly disqualified him. The Israeli coach was furious.
On Shabbat, Baruch and
Akiva went to the only synagogue in the city where no one had prepared the Torah
reading. Akiva accepted the challenge and read from the Torah.
The father and son got
the earliest plane out and returned to Bet El, where Akiva went back to his
Yeshiva.
I told this story to a Hanukkah
gathering of my Israeli wife’s family. They are a mix of Ashkenazic and
Sephardic Jews, Religious, Hassidic, and non-religious Jews.
Some of the family members
said: “This is utter stupidity. Some solution had to be found. Sometimes you
have to be slightly flexible in your values, in order to accomplish a greater
goal. Not to do so is senseless, blind extremism!”
Other family members said: “Akiva was put to the test and
showed that his core values are more important than a life’s goal in sports. The
Greeks passed decrees against our religion to extinguish it, and the Maccabees put their lives on the line to protect and defend our ideals. Akiva reinforced that
very same victory.”
The Hanukkah party turned into an ideological feud with each
side trenched in firing sound arguments.
Dear readers, I seek your input. Was Akiva a winner or a
loser? In the comments below, please complete the following:
And the Winner Is… (My comment is the first)
Postscript
After reading several comments below knocking Akiva's parents for encouraging him to box instead of increasing his Torah study, I am driven to add the following:
Much is to be gained by encouraging a child to express himself in an outlet that he excels in. Increasing hours of Torah study is always commendable, and, yes, it is the aspiration of any religious Jewish parent.
But if a child seeks to develop a natural talent, by encouraging him, the child gains character, self-confidence, life force and simcha (happiness). So if a "righteous" parent comes along and "clips his wings" not allowing him to satisfy his inner aspiration, they are raising him to be "benoni" - a person of mediocre character.
It follows that even if the Torah-driven parents do "succeed" in increasing the child's hours of Torah study at the expense of pursuing a hobby like boxing, his Torah study will be less daring, less original, and less of a contribution to the Jewish People because his character has been suffocated by his very own parents.
A happy child with a robust character will contribute more to the Torah world than a child who was raised not being allowed to express his inner yearnings.
So when Akiva the boxer now reaches his post-high school Yeshiva studies, he is bringing to the gemara a more-developed character and therefore more blessing and success in his Torah studies.
Kudos to Baruch and Michal Finkelstein for raising such children of character. I bless the "righteous" commentators that their children should merit to have at least a fraction of the drive that Akiva I'm sure will have in his Torah learning. I suggest that Baruch and Michal give classes in "Educating children around the home" in some of the towns where these righteous comment-writers are from.
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