Until the Buzzer Sounds | Rabbi Elchonon Jacobovitz

Uncle John was a huge wrestling fan. In fact, that's practically all he talked about. Wrestling, wrestling and more wrestling. And at every opportunity, he tried to convince his nephew, Ben, to come along with him to a wrestling match. Finally, after weeks and weeks of convincing, Ben agrees, and he says: You know what? Tonight I'll come. Uncle John is ecstatic. He pulls up to the house that night, Ben comes into the car, and as they drive to the arena, he starts telling Ben about his favorite fighter, Tony, who's in the match tonight and is sure to win. They pull up to the arena. Uncle John leads Ben to his box seats, and in short order, the match begins. The fighters start going at it, they’re wrestling back and forth. The crowd is roaring, the music's blaring and Uncle John is cheering: Tony, Tony! But after seven minutes, the unthinkable happens. Tony is wrestled down to the mat. Ben starts getting out of his seat and he looks and he sees his uncle and his uncle is still there cheering: Tony, Tony! And he turns to his uncle and he says: John, what are you doing? And his uncle turns to him and says, What do you mean? Where are you going? And he says: What do you mean, ‘where am I going’? Tony's down. It's over. His uncle says: Over? This is wrestling. The pasuk in Tehillim tells us, As the waves of the ocean rise, the Ribono shel Olam praises them. And the Ba’al Shem Tov asks, Why is the Ribono shel Olam cheering for the waves of the ocean? And he answers something amazing. He says: These ocean waves, they've crashed a million times before. And every time they try to rise up and overtake the land, they fail. And yet, what do they do? They rise up again. They try again. They give it another go. And for someone like that, the Ribono shel Olam’s right there, cheering him along. After Yaakov finishes his epic fight with שרו של עשו, he's crowned with a new title, Yisroel. Why? Because you fought with angel and man, and you were able. But if you look carefully, the Torah doesn't say ותנצח, and you overcame and you won, it says ותוכל, and you were able to keep up the fight. And the truth is, if you look carefully, Yaakov didn't win. If anything, he got injured. And yet, you know what he did do? He was able to keep up the fight עד עלות השחר, until the buzzer sounded. Very soon, the buzzer of Shofar Gadol will sound, and guess what? If we're still in it, we win it.