Shabbat Sermon: The Law of the Radiator with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz




From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life show

Summary: <p>If you know teens who play hockey, you know how all important it is for them to get their time on the ice.  That time is limited and hard to come by.  Hockey parents are wont to drive their young hockey stars to the ice rink at 6 in the morning.</p> <p>In a place like Seaforth, Ontario, the ice rink manager, Graham Nesbitt, had a quality problem.  There was only one ice rink.  But hockey in Canada is super popular.  Far more kids want to play hockey than can comfortably skate in the city’s one rink.  But Graham Nesbitt was committed to the idea that any teen who wants to skate can skate, and he would go out of his way to open up the rink early in the morning, to stay there and keep it open late at night, seven days a week.  He would keep the rink open in the face of major snowstorms.  When other businesses were closed, his ice rink was open for any young skater whose parents were willing to drive them through the storm to get extra ice time.  Graham Nesbitt did not see his job as managing an ice rink but as nurturing teen athletes who dreamed of becoming hockey players.</p> <p>Graham Nesbitt embodies a principle that is important to Judaism and eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism.  The principle is what my sister Lee calls the law of the radiator.  What you radiate comes right back to you.</p>