Racing the Old Man

Nathan’s father and grandfathers had learned full time in yeshiva.  In Nathan’s family, it was expected that he too would learn in yeshiva.

The problem was, that unlike his father and grandfathers, Nathan found it very difficult to sit and concentrate for all those hours. After a while, he would stop enjoying the learning and start to feel sad.

About 3 weeks before the holiday of Succot, Nathan’s friend Noah said to him: “Hey Nathan…do you see that abandoned parking lot? It doesn’t really belong to anybody. I’ve got a good connection to buy lulavim and esrogim (two of the 4 species used on the holiday of Succot). Why don’t we buy them cheap and sell them right here in this lot?”

“Sell them here? But there’s no electricity,” said Nathan.

“No electricity!” C’mon man, we’ll ask the old lady next door if we can run a wire through her window and we’ll have electricity!”

So they went and bought a big load of luvavim and esrogim. They sold that load and went and got another load and another load. Three weeks later, Nathan’s share of the profit was more money than he had ever made – and he had made it in three weeks!

Nathan invested his money in stocks and did very well. Within a year he had made $100,000.

Somebody noticed that Nathan had a talent for seeing patterns in the way stocks worked. He introduced Nathan to his boss and before long Nathan was making money working for an investment firm. Within a year Nathan made a million dollars.

Nathan had a gift.

The evil inclination saw an opening and attacked Nathan’s ego.

Nathan started living the “good life” but it was no longer the “good Jewish way of life.”  He moved into a very fancy house – bought expensive cars and started partying every night. Nathan wasted money on more cars, suits and vacations than he would ever need. Worst of all, Nathan fell into lust and found himself acting with disloyalty to the person who had loved him and stood beside him more than anyone   – his wife.

Hashem put the finishing touch on Nathan with the coming of the economic crash, and he lost everything that he had. Almost overnight, Nathan had no money. His cars were repossessed. His “friends,” who had just used him when times were good, were gone –  and Nathan’s wife too, knew that he had strayed and wanted a divorce.

Nathan dragged himself to the bank. Based on his income for the past year, the bank gave him a loan for  $150,000 –  but this only made Nathan feel worse. Not only didn’t he have any assets, but now he was a debtor.

Nathan didn’t want to live anymore. He was up the whole night thinking.

As the sun rose, Nathan headed down to the shore. He looked out at the water and thought about tying a rock to his leg and jumping in.

Suddenly, Nathan heard a voice coming from behind him:

“Your ship’s not coming in, sonny.” Nathan turned around and saw Abe, an older man probably in his seventies.

Irritated Abe asked, “What are you talking about, old man?”

“Your ship’s not coming in, sonny. There’s a sand bar out there. You’re ship can’t come to you – you’ve gotta go to it.”

Abe knew what Nathan was thinking of doing. He saw it written on his face.

“Hey sonny, do you know how to run?” asked Abe.

“What!” said Nathan. “Of course I know how to run…leave me alone.”

“Do you want to race? Do you think you can beat me in a race?” asked Abe.

Nathan looked Abe over and said. “C’mon old man leave me alone, of course I can beat you in a race.”

“Do you want to bet money on it? Do you want to bet $50 that you can beat me in a 100 yard dash? I’ll even give you odds – ten to one. If you beat me I’ll pay you $500, if I win you pay me $50. You wanna make a deal?”

Five hundred dollars was a decent incentive, and it seemed like easy money. Nathan felt hopeful for the first time in months.

“Do you have the money?” asked Abe.

“No” said Nathan.

“Well, get the money and meet me back here tomorrow morning –  8 o’clock – and we’ll race.”

So Abe went home and convinced his wife to give him the money and the next morning at 8 o’clock he stood again before Abe.

“Well, you got the money, sonny? You ready to race”?
“Yeah I’m ready,” answered Nathan.
“You’re sure you can beat me?”
“For sure I’m going to beat you,” said Nathan.
“Okay,” said Abe.
“But remember you gotta pay me $50 if you lose.”
“By the way, have you ever been to the horses?” asked Abe.
“To the what?”
“To the horses. You know, the racetrack.”
“Yeah sure.”
“So you know what they do when one horse shows up looking bigger and stronger than the rest?”
“They give him a handicap,” said Nathan.
“That’s right!” said Abe.
“And do you know what they do to that horse?”
“Usually they put extra weights on him,” said Nathan.
“That’s right!” said Abe with a smile…”but I don’t have to put weights on you. Here put this on…”

(Abe handed Nathan an empty back pack)”…you’re going to run in this.”
Nathan shot Abe a fiery look: “It doesn’t matter, old man. I’m going to beat you even running in this thing.”

“That’s why I’m giving you a second handicap,” said Abe…and he turned Nathan around backwards and yelled:

“READY, SET, GO!”

Abe took off, and as you guessed, he won the race with ease.

Strutting over to Nathan, Abe plucked the $50 bill out of his hand.

“Now sonny, what did you learn from this?”

“What did I learn?  I was ripped off by an old man!”

Abe looked Nathan square in the eyes: “If that’s all you learned then you might as well go jump off that pier. But if you’re just a little smarter than that you go home and think about what you learned. You  come back tomorrow and give me the answer. If you get it, you’ll get your second lesson tomorrow.”

Nathan was up all night thinking about the meaning of what happened. Did it mean that he shouldn’t trust people or he shouldn’t trust himself? Was G-d punishing him for his bad behavior? He didn’t know what it meant.

In the morning, Nathan met again with Abe. “So did you figure it out? Do you have the answer?” asked Abe.

Nathan answered: “All I can think of is that the reason I lost was because I passively agreed to play by somebody else’s rules.”

Abe’s eyes lit up. Now that’s an answer! Do you know both my sons went to college and even ten years after college they couldn’t answer that question?”

“Now tell me what are your assets?” asked Abe.

“I have no assets just liabilities” said Nathan.

“C’mon man, everybody has assets. Think – you must have some assets” said Abe.

“Not only don’t I have any assets but I’m in debt to the tune of $150,000,” said Nathan.

“It sounds like you’d better make a balance sheet,” said Abe. Taking out a pad, Abe drew two columns – one for assets and one for liabilities.

Pointing to the assets column, Abe said “Now write your assets over here.”

Nathan said, “I told you, I have no assets” and wrote $150,000 in the liability column.

“Do you know what it tells me about a person that starts with his liabilities before his assets?” said Abe.

“Do you speak English?” asked Abe.

“Yeah, so what I speak English.”

“Do you know how many immigrants came to this country not speaking any English and they worked hard and became multi-millionaires?”

“Do you know your way around?” asked Abe. “Can you get from place to place in the city?”

“Yes,” answered Nathan.

“And do you know currency? How to make change?” asked Abe.

“Yes.”

“These are all assets. There were so many immigrants that came to these shores not speaking English; not knowing their way around, and not even knowing the difference between a nickel and a quarter and even they were able to succeed.”

Abe said, “I’ll show you another asset you have.” He went over and crossed out the $150,000 that Nathan had written as a liability and he moved it into the asset column. “You see – the fact that you owe the bank $150,000 is really an asset! You must have had some assets for the bank to invest in you, right?”

Abe stayed with Nathan and kept showing him more and more of his assets until Nathan finally got it.

Nathan realized that whatever he had “lost” were all things that he could get back again. Nathan now knew that his G-d-given gifts were still inside him and he would never lose his gifts. Nathan now saw that every “mistake” that he had made was actually an asset because of how much he learned from them about life and himself. Nathan’s belief in G-d and himself got stronger and he became excited to start again. Nathan was grateful for Abe because he became stronger and more successful than he ever was before.