Cantor's Corner by Eric Schulmiller

I read the way a person might swim, to save his or her life. I wrote that way too. – Mary Oliver, Blue Pastures.

As I write my September article in the middle of August, I am looking ahead - not only to the coming Jewish New Year and Days of Awe, with their powerful message of hope and transformation, but to an event that is in much closer proximity: the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. More specifically, I am looking forward to the swimming competitions: Men’s, Women’s, Freestyle, Backstroke, Relay, 100m, all will hold my attention in the coming weeks. Why? Because there is a strong Jewish connection to swimming– one that stretches from the Biblical period right up through the present Olympics.

This year’s Olympics mark the (hopefully) triumphant return of the 2000 Sydney Olympics superstar, Lenny Krayzelburg, a 28-year old Jewish swimmer who emigrated from Odessa to Los Angeles in 1989. Lenny won three gold medals in the 2000 Olympics, holds the world-record in the 100m backstroke, and will co-captain this years USA Olympic swim team. He will be joined on team USA by fellow Jewish swimmers Scott Goldblatt and Jason Lezak, both of whom also medaled in the 2000 Olympics. Remarkably, these athletes simply constitute the latest iteration of over 100 years of Jewish excellence in the world of Olympic swimming.

Of course, when it comes to Jews and swimming, one name comes to mind right away: Mark Spitz. Certainly, Spitz’s 7 Olympic gold medals (each of which set a new world’s record!) at the 1972 Munich Olympics is a feat for the ages. But over the years, dozens of Jewish swimmers have won over 60 Olympic medals, nearly half of them gold, including two golds won in 1896 by Alfred Hajos-Guttman for Hungary at the very first modern Olympic games in Athens. And that’s not even mentioning several Jewish gold-medal winners in canoeing, kayaking, yachting and water polo!

And women are not left out of this impressive litany. Most famously there is Dara Torres, one of three American women to win Olympic gold. Torres is the first American swimmer to compete in four Olympiads (’84, ’88, ’92 and ’00), winning nine Olympic medals in the process, including gold in both ’84 and ’00! Also of note is Charlotte "Eppy" Epstein, the "Mother of American women’s swimming," who founded the Women’s Swimming Association in 1917 and was the driving force behind the inclusion of women’s swimming at the 1920 Olympics – the first time women ever competed in a major Olympic event.

So, what could explain why so many world-class Jewish athletes take to water like a duck to, er, water? Maybe they’re (perhaps subconsciously) taking their inspiration from the Bible itself! For instance, we read in Isaiah (25:11-26:2): "Then God will spread out His hands in their homeland, as a swimmer spreads his hands out to swim, and he will humble their pride along with the emblems of their power…In that day, this song shall be sung in the land of Judah: Ours is a mighty city! God makes victory our inner and outer wall!" Talk about pre-meet pep-talk! But it is a quote from the Talmud, composed around the 5th century CE, that sheds the most powerful light on our connection to swimming, and might even inspire us this High Holiday season:

"A father is obligated with respect to his son, to circumcise him, to redeem him if he is a firstborn, to teach him Torah, to take a wife for him and to teach him a craft. Some say: He is obligated even to teach him to swim in water" (Kiddushin 29a).

What is interesting about this verse is that the word used for "swim," (l’hasheet) is not the normal Hebrew word for swimming. Rather, it is an alternate root which can also mean, "to float, to move about," and in some conjugations, even "to argue." (!) This rich, poetic language, then, hints at the very essence of what a parent strives to teach their children, and what we seek to rediscover every year at this time: First and foremost, learn how to float. Survival is the most basic of skills we grasp even at the youngest age. Then, don’t be afraid to explore! Seek to grow in new ways as you renew your relationships with those who you’ve met along each step of your journey. And finally, the quintessential Jewish act: Don’t be afraid to stand up and argue for what you believe in! Do as Mary Oliver says, and write yourself into the Book of Life with strong, urgent, vital strokes. After all, as our (people’s and Olympic) history has shown us, it is only the strongest swimmers who can swim passionately against the stream.