On January 1, 2020, a short time before the Corona outbreak, I attended a gathering of 90,000 fellow Jews, at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. They all united to celebrate the completion of a seven-year cycle of studying the 2,711 pages of the Talmud, known as Daf Yomi.
At the mass event, I noticed Jews, men, and women, of all ages. But my heart swelled with tears and pride as I noticed one Jew, close to 100, an Auschwitz survivor, who attended the celebration together with four generations of descendants. I noticed some other twenty Holocaust survivors dancing together in MetLife. It was the classic Jewish “revenge” against Nazi Germany.
The chairman of the event, Mr. Sol Werdiger, shared with me an incredible story. Sol is the founder & CEO of Outerstuff, the leading designer, manufacturer, and marketer of children’s sports apparel for the major sports leagues in North America. Sol is a well-known activist and philanthropist in New York, who also serves as chairman of Agudath Israel of America and of the Siyum Hashas.
“I never knew why G-d put me into this type of business, when I have no interest in sports and can barely name ten players of the major sports leagues.
But nine years ago, we needed a location to house 90,000 Jews who study Talmud over seven years. And that is when the idea popped into my mind: Let’s do it at MetLife.
MetLife Stadium is an American sports stadium located at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, eight miles west of New York City. It is the home stadium of two National Football League (NFL) franchises, the New York Giants and the New York Jets, as well as the New York Guardians of the XFL. At an approximate cost of $1.6 billion, it was the most expensive stadium ever built at the time that it opened, in 2010.
My friends thought I was crazy, but I called the owners of Metlife, some of them nice Jewish boys (Mr. Tisch and Mr. Johnson), and they agreed to give it to us for the Siyum Hashas.
We came to a final meeting, where we would sign the contract and finalize the deal. At the meeting, a man stood up and said he wanted to say a few words. He introduced himself as the man who designed and built the stadium for Mr. Tisch and Mr. Johnson, a project that cost them 1.6 billion dollars.
This is what he said at the meeting:
‘It took me ten years to design and build MetLife. As I got older, I began to become more introspective. And I started to ask myself what the purpose of my life was; what did I achieve in all my years. A sense of emptiness came over me. I dedicated ten full years to building a stadium, for what? What was its ultimate meaning? Is this the reason my soul came down to this world? Was this worth ten years of my life and 1.6 billion dollars?
For those ten years, I did not do much more. And I was feeling remorse. I am a Jew, and my soul was yearning for real meaning...
But when I hear today that my stadium will be used to house 90,000 Jews, praying and learning Torah together, dancing, and celebrating their Judaism, uniting together against anti-Semitism and bigotry, committing themselves to bringing the light of Torah into the world, I say: Ah, now I know why I spent ten years and 1.6 billion building this gigantic stadium!’”
We need to let go of the notion that life must look a certain way. G-d’s plans are mysterious, and every step in our arduous journeys is there to help each of us cast our unique infinite light on the world.
RABBI YY JACOBSON
