Is "take it easy" a Jewish idea?

The past week has been humbling for me. Eight days ago, my family completed our move to a new home, and I spent a great deal of time hauling boxes and doing amateur landscaping. The result was not only a cluttered new house and an attractive oakleaf hydrangea, but also waking up Monday morning with severe back spasms. I was largely bedridden for the next few days, and I am still using a walker and having difficulty sitting. Acknowledging my need for rest and rehabilitation during the past week did not come easily.

I grew up in a hockey-mad family that adored players who fought through pain and ignored injury, who lost teeth on the ice but did not miss a shift. My New York Rangers role models were Tom Laidlaw, Ron Greschner and Dave Maloney - not the scorers and finesse players but the scrappers and checkers.

The same message was broadcast in the holier context of yeshiva; the highest value was self-denying hatmadah (constant, continuous commitment to study), as the Talmud made clear with its choice of role models. Hillel froze on the roof listening to Torah being taught. Rabbi Eliezer scowled when students left the beit midrash (study hall) for a Yom Tov meal. Rachel endured abject poverty when her wealthy father disowned her for marrying Rabbi Akiva. And so on. I'm having a hard time thinking of a talmudic role model who takes a break when he is tired or hungry or ill. [Yes, the Talmud does discuss the importance of looking after our health, and see midrashim like Vayikra Rabbah Behar 34, but there is a difference between that broad approach, and a specific imperative of surrendering to physical challenges rather than trying to tough it out.]

So cancelling chavrutot and classes was more than disappointing; it felt like failure. Of course, I know it's not failure - and that incorrect response raises the question of how we ought to educate our young students. Training them to ignore the messages sent by their bodies is unhealthy and unsafe, but then why does the Talmud present scores of models for "toughing it out", but none come to mind who took it slow and easy when suffering? [The biblical Yitro does tell Moshe to set up associate judges rather than handle the nation's entire caseload himself, but it is pitched more as a concession to the nation's needs than to Moshe's.]

Did none of our heroes have moments of physical weakness? Unlikely; no one makes it from 40 to 80 without their body failing them at some point. So either all of them overrode their personal suffering, or the Talmud felt that discussing the times they surrendered was not worthwhile. If it's the latter, then is the Talmud's logic that life will teach us to take it slow, but playing through pain requires indoctrination via talmudic role models? Or is there some other reason why "take it slow" was omitted from the canon? What do you think?

Class: Rambam on Exercise

Last year, we ran a very successful "Maimonides Dinner" in tandem with the Maimonides Society of the Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley. With a great meal designed to follow the Rambam's recommendations on nutrition, we studied the Rambam's ideas on nutrition. We looked at their Judaic as well as secular roots, and we compared them with modern medical ideas.

This coming Sunday we will, Gd-willing, hold Part Two. We will look at the Rambam's views on exercise, while enjoying another great meal modeled on his dietary advice. Again, we will study the Judaic and secular roots of the Rambam's views, and compare them with modern medical counsel.

Here is the outline, as well as the source sheet and a bibliograpy:

The Maimonides Exercise Dinner: Outline and Source Sheet
R’ Mordechai Torczyner - http://rechovot.blogspot.com

Brief review: Maimonides on Medicine and Torah

Brief review: Maimonides scientific approach
Predecessors - Greek, Arabic and East Asian
The Maimonidean approach to medical tradition

Maimonides’ predecessors on physical exercise - From Greece to Rome to Arabia
The Greek love of athleticism
Rome is influenced
Galen’s “Maintenance of Health”
Philostratus “Handbook for a Sports Coach”
The Arabic school

Jewish tradition, pre-Maimonides, on exercise
The Importance of maintaining one’s body
Sport and Strength in Tanach
Strenuous strength training
Ball-playing
Exercise and digestion
Oil and and then exercise

Maimonides on Exercise
Values exercise highly as a means of maintaining the body and soul
Exercise isn’t always indicated
Two positive effects of exercise - Digestion and Mood
The negative effect of strenuous exercise
The ideal exercise regimen

Matching Maimonides with Jewish tradition
Maintaining the body
Digestion
Mood
Strenuous exercise

Matching Maimonides with modern medicine
Exercise and digestion
Strenuous exercise
Mood

Sources

1. Proverbs 22:5
Cold drafts are in the path of the crooked; one who guards his life will distance himself from them.

2. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Personality
4:23 – A city must possess ten things before a Torah scholar may live there: A doctor, a phlebotomist…
4:1 - Having a healthy and complete body is one of the paths of Gd, for it is not possible to understand or know any Divine wisdom when one is ill.

3. Talmud, Bava Metzia 107b
Rabbi Chanina said: Ninety-nine people die of colds, and one at the Divine command.

4. Talmud, Bava Kama 90b
One is not permitted to harm himself, although he is exempt from judicial punishment.

5. Talmud, Shabbat 140b
The prohibition against damaging one’s body is worse.

6. Rashi to Melachim I 1:9 "אבן הזוחלת"
This was a large stone, with which youths would test their strength by moving and dragging it.

7. Talmud, Gittin 67b
Rav Yosef busied himself with a mill. Rav Sheshet busied himself with [carrying] boards, saying, ‘Physical exertion is great, for it warms its practitioner.’

8. Midrash, Bamidbar Rabbah 14:4 (Vilna edition)
Rabbi Berechiah haKohen said [in a play on the biblical word ‘Kidarvonot’ to read it as ‘kadur banot’]: It is like the ball that young girls use, which they pick up and throw here and there. So are the words of the sages, one saying his reason and the other saying his reason.

9. Talmud Yerushalmi, Taanit 4:5
Why was Tur Shimon destroyed? Some say because of sexual immorality, some say because of ball-playing.

10. Tosefta, Shabbat 17:16
A person may not run on Shabbat to strain himself, but one may stroll in an ordinary manner, even for the entire day.

11. Talmud, Shabbat 41a
One who eats and does not walk minimally [four cubits] afterward will have his food rot in him.

12. Medical Aphorisms of Moses Maimonides (Rosner), 17:4
One should not neglect physical exercise for the body, as do people of learning who diligently study the entire day and night. Rather, it is proper that the body and all limbs be moderately active, and that each limb perform its movement, so that all organs, both external and internal, receive benefit therefrom.

13. Medical Aphorisms of Moses Maimonides (Rosner), 18:16
If a short quartan fever occurs which is not severe, then no harm exists in the patient doing mild exercises.

14. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Personality 4:14
As long as a person exercises and greatly exhausts himself and is not full and his innards are loose, no illness will come to him and his strength will build - even if he eats bad foods.

15. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Personality 4:2
As a general rule: One should oppress his body and exhaust it each morning until his body warms up, then rest for a bit until his spirit returns, and then eat. Bathing in hot water after exhaustion is good; then wait a bit and eat.

16. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Personality 1:4
One should not be frivolous or full of laughter or sad or mournful, but rather one should be happy all of his days, gently and with a pleasant demeanor.

17. Medical Aphorisms of Moses Maimonides (Rosner), 18:2
The most beneficial of all types of exercise is physical gymnastics to the point that the soul becomes influenced and rejoices, such as hunting and ball-playing, because emotions of happiness often suffice to heal just by their presence. Thus, rejoicing and happiness alone will make many people’s illnesses milder. For others, both the illness on the one hand, as well as the emotional upset that led to it, disappear.

18. Medical Aphorisms of Moses Maimonides (Rosner), 1:1
A sensory or motor nerve coming to a muscle originating from the brain and spinal cord inserts into every muscle either at its origin or at a point between its origin and middle section....

19. Medical Aphorisms of Moses Maimonides (Rosner), 1:2
Moses says: ... when one's inclination is to move a specific limb, it sends a physiological force to the nerve in the direction of a particular muscle, the latter contracting in the direction of its origin, thus moving the limb....

20. Medical Aphorisms of Moses Maimonides (Rosner), 18:1
If the exercise greatly exerts him, then a satisfactory diet alone will no longer suffice and he will then also need to consume healing medications.

21. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Personality 1:4
The straight path is the intermediate path in every human trait, which is the trait that is equidistant from each extreme and not closer to either one. Therefore, the early sages instructed that a person continually evaluate his traits and guage them and guide them in the intermediate path, so that he will be whole in his body…

22. Medical Aphorisms of Moses Maimonides (Rosner), 18:14
It is proper to precede physical exercise by rubbing and massaging the body. After this one exercises slowly and increases it until one reaches an optimum level of exercise. One should continue this as long as one’s facial appearance remains well, and movement is rapid, and as long as body temperature is normal, and sweat is flowing. However, as soon as one of these conditions changes, one should cease the gymnastics immediately.

Bibliography

Books
 Athletics and Literature in the Roman Empire, Jason König
 Gd’s Word for our World, J. Harold Ellens
 Greek Athletics in the Roman Empire, Zahra Newby
 Medical Aphorisms of Moses Maimonides, Rosner ed.
 Medicine in the Bible and Talmud, Fred Rosner
 Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Deiot, Moses Maimonides
 Sports Medicine for the Primary Care Physician

On-line Articles
 Ancient Pankration, Steve and Gareth Richards
o http://www.spartan-warriors.net/ancient_pankration.htm
 Eating before exercising, Ori Hofmekler
o http://chetday.com/eatingbeforeexercise.htm
 Effects of Exercise on Adult Cognition
o http://www.fitwithz.com/EffectsofExcercise.html
 The Effects of Exercise on the Brain, M.K. McGovern
o http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro05/web2/mmcgovern.html
 Forget Crossword Puzzles - Study Says 3 Hours of Exercise a Week Can Bolster Memory, Intellect, Wall Street Journal, November 16, 2006, Sharon Begley
o http://www.yongmoonmookwan.com/1/p18.htm
 Postprandial lipemia: effects of intermittent versus continuous exercise, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 30(10):1515-1520, October 1998
o http://www.acsm-msse.org/pt/re/msse/fulltext.00005768-199810000-00008.htm
 The Real Olympics - The Guessing Games, Dr. Martin Brookes
o http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/S/science/society/olympics.html,
 Review of Konig, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2007.02.24
o http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2007/2007-02-24.html, John Scarborough
 Review of Newby and Konig, Classical Journal On-Line 2007.10.01, Donald G. Kyle
o http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0710&L=CJ-ONLINE&P=62
 Sports Nutrition
o http://www.flammerouge.je/content/3_factsheets/constant/Nutrition.htm
 Weightlifting & Exercise, Adam Kessler, USA Weightlifting Sport Performance Coach
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Weightlifting-Exercise-1549/digestion-exercise.htm

Steroids: Use ‘em, or lose your job?

Baseball's steroid users remind me of the old Jack Benny joke: The mugger asks, “Your money or your life,” to which you reply, “Let me think about it.”

Or the gemara on loving Gd “with all of your life, and with all that you possess.” The gemara explains that some people value their life highest, and some value their wealth highest, so that the pasuk needs to mention both.

We laugh when we hear those lines - but steroid-pumping athletes have decided that their money is worth more than their lives. The athletes know the risk, they can even see the drugs’ intense effects on their bodies daily, but they take these drugs in pursuit of wealth, financial security, fame, success, etc.

So what’s wrong with it? Why ban these drugs? After all, they are accessible to all athletes, so no one owns an unfair advantage!

Some blame the prohibition on society’s puritan approach to pharmacology, but I have a different take: I think steroids ought to be banned because of their effect on players who don’t want to juice themselves.

Consider this: Let’s say steroid use was legal, but you didn’t want to use it due to health concerns. If you were a baseball player of superb talent, serious team commitment and a solid work ethic, and you worked hard throughout high school and, perhaps, college and minor league ball, you might still earn a spot on a professional team and, at long last, pull down millions for your skills and effort.

But then along comes another player whose work ethic isn’t quite as great as your own, but who is willing to take “the cream.” He bulks up, his vision improves, his bat speed improves, and suddenly you’re riding the bench while he’s riding high.

What choice do you have? This is your career, how else will you feed your family? Besides, you’ve earned a spot on that team through your years of hard work! And so you get pressured into becoming a steroid user, harming your health for the sake of this game/job.

How many good, hard-working players were shut out of baseball by Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, or Barry Bonds?

Think of Wally Pipp losing his position at first base to Lou Gehrig, who went on to play the next thirteen years straight without missing a game; would we feel the same affection for Gehrig if we knew he had stolen Pipp’s job with drugs that Pipp refused to take? Worse - what if Gehrig had taken the job because of drug-enhanced skills, and then Pipp had resorted to drugs to get it back?

I think that on some level it reminds us too much of the ancient Romans and their lions - it's not right to force the athletes to face the lions.

That, to me, is why steroids ought to be illegal in pro sports: Because if some players are allowed to harm themselves for the job, then other players will be forced to do the same.

Just as society won’t permit minors to hire themselves out as sweatshop workers because of the harm to their health;
Just as society won’t tolerate the sale of a kidney for someone to put food on his plate;
Just as society won’t tolerate prostitution of the poor;
So, too, we won’t tolerate a situation in which players are forced to harm themselves in order to play the game.