Jacob goes to the races for the first time. As soon as he arrives at Aqueduct, not knowing anything about horse racing, he goes straight to the corral to take a closer look. To his surprise, Jacob sees his rabbi blessing one of the horses. Jacob thinks he must be onto a good thing so he writes down the number of the horse and places a $10 bet on it. The horse wins and Jacob wins $50. Jacob immediately returns to the corral and there, as before, he sees the rabbi blessing another horse. He writes down the number of this horse and bets his $50 winnings on it. It comes in first and Jacob now has over $500.
This process goes on race after race until Jacob has won $21,000. It’s now time for the last race of the day and Jacob watches the rabbi bless the final horse. So confident is Jacob that, although the horse is a 20-1 long shot, he bets his entire winnings on it. But, oy vey, this time the horse struggles in last, a good 20 lengths behind the field. Jacob is so upset with this outcome that he runs over to the rabbi and says angrily, “Why did every horse you blessed win except the last one, rabbi? He came in last.” The rabbi replies, “That’s the problem with you Reform Jews. You don’t know the difference between a brochah and a kaddish.”
