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Thought for the Day: What I Learned About the Days of Awe from My Century Ride

A couple of weeks after I successfully completed (for the first time!) my century ride, I was asked by one of my sponsors, "So, what's your next project?" I answered, "To complete the ride again next year, and also... tomorrow morning's ride."

I wasn't "just being me." The century ride is certainly the highlight of the year for bike riding, but I wouldn't be able to do that ride without my daily (of course except on Shabbos) rides. Moreover, the daily rides are really the main thing; I do the daily rides to maintain my health. (Well... at my age, to do what I can do slow the decline.) That thought got me thinking about how this daily physical activity punctuated with periodic/annual "all out" events mirrors our spiritual existence.

Why would I think that? In the introduction to the Mishna Brura you will find an explanation of why it is that an essentially spiritual and eternal being -- our nefesh -- requires nourishment from food, which is physical and temporal. (What in the world is that discussion doing in the Mishna Brura -- a halacha sefer on the laws of daily living?! I know, right! I urge you to go check it out... amazing what you'll find there!) The answer is simply that our nefesh is hidden in a physical garment of flesh and blood in this world. Therefore the Creator established that the nourishment for our nefesh in this world should be packaged, so to speak, in a form that is palpable to the physical senses.

Now lets try a קל וחומר/a fortiori argument: if food -- whose impact one the person's life is hours to a day or two and can sustain but not improve one's body -- wraps up and delivers spiritual nourishment to nefesh, then certainly and all the more so exercise -- whose impact on the person's life is long term, even improves the health of one's body, and enables one to eat more as well as utilize the food more effectively -- must wrap up and deliver quite a dose of spiritual nutrition to the nefesh.

So... I ride every day really for my health. I need to exercise regularly (ahem... everyone does) and I enjoy bike riding, so I will actually keep up with it. Of course, the annual goal of making being able to complete one really long ride adds another dimension of motivation. As the date of the century ride approached, my daily ride changed in both intensity and duration. I also added a few progressively longer rides to get myself used to being in the saddle that long. The day before the ride, as a final preparation, I did not ride; it was a day to prepare my body for the long day of riding ahead. The week after the ride, I took things a little easier than usual.

Let's think about davening. I really daven every day regularly for my spiritual health. I need to daven regularly (ahem... everyone does) and I enjoy davening with the vasikin, so I will actually keep up with it. Of course, the annual goal of the ימים נוראים adds another dimension of motivation. As the date of the ימים נוראים approac, my daily ride changes in both intensity and duration. During Elul we add l'Dovid and shofar. Then the week before Rosh HaShannah we add slichos. The day before Rosh HaShannah, though, we don't blow the shofar. The day before Yom Kippur we say a very abbreviated slichos and prepare for the fast by eating more. Then after Yom Kippur... no tachanun, no slichos, we transition to the festival of particular job -- Sukkos and Shmini Aztzeres. Then we return to our regular routine; both because we need it for our spiritual health and because we are preparing for the next year's ימים נוראים.

I am really in a whole different level of fitness after the century ride and my next morning's ride is a qualitatively different ride. I am on a different spiritual level after the נעילה/closing service of ימים נוראים, and my next ma'ariv is a qualitatively different t'fila. I changed my daily rides as I approached and in prepartion for the century ride. I changed my daily t'fila as I approached and in prepartion for the ימים נוראים.

What's the point of this exercise? (You better believe every pun intended!) We have very little feel for spiritual matters. It can be hard to appreciate what all this effort is accomplishing or why I have to do it. By mentally linking them to activities that I do understand and feel, I can start to pull some of that feeling into my davening and all my spiritual work all year around and during the ימים נוראים.

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