For me, the best part of running is the feeling you experience when you’re done. There are moments in the “going” that are beautiful and satisfying to be sure, but finishing—being done, knowing that you’ve reached your goal—that feels amazing.
After having told myself that two marathons was more than enough, I’m currently training with my family for this year’s New York City Marathon as part of “Team Handsome Hank,” running in memory of my beloved father-in-law, Henry Hantgan (z”l). This Sunday, Jacqueline and I are running the Santa Monica Half Marathon—we are hoping for a miraculous cool-down from the oppressive heat of the past few days.
As hard as it is sometimes to mentally prepare oneself for spending several hours running, only—in the case of the Santa Monica Half—to end up right back where you began, this week’s Torah portion asks us to imagine a never-ending race in which the finish line is completely elusive.
Deuteronomy 16:20 instructs us: “Justice, only justice shall you pursue … (צֶדֶק צֶדֶק תִּרְדֹּף – tzedek, tzedek tirdof)!” The commentators throughout the centuries have focused much attention on the repetition of that first word, tzedek, justice (צֶדֶק). Why is it repeated? What is this meant to teach us? (One answer I love is that the repetition reminds us to pursue justice near and far, in your own home and, more broadly, throughout the world.) But I want to focus on the “pursue” part (tirdof – תִּרְדֹּף).
The great Hasidic master Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter of Gur (1860-1900)—also known as the Sefat Emet—taught that the use of the word “pursue” reminds us that absolute justice is ultimately unattainable. We run after it, we strive for it, we seek whole-heartedly to realize it, all the while knowing that it cannot be fully achieved.
It might seem like the cruelest race imaginable, the ultimate torture. You run after something all the days of your life and never reach the finish line. You never, ever get that feeling of being done.
While it is inherently painful, perhaps this is a very grown-up way of understanding our responsibility in the world. We strive to build a world of justice and compassion every day, knowing that the ideal we seek can never fully be attained. Yet, we refuse to give up hope or give in to despair. We keep pursuing the goal, running toward it with determination, knowing that while perfection may be out of our reach, we can, little by little, make things better.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yoshi