{"id":56578,"date":"2020-08-28T16:05:37","date_gmt":"2020-08-28T22:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=56578"},"modified":"2020-08-28T16:05:37","modified_gmt":"2020-08-28T22:05:37","slug":"off-the-pulpit-how-life-imitates-chess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/off-the-pulpit-how-life-imitates-chess\/","title":{"rendered":"Off the Pulpit: How Life Imitates Chess"},"content":{"rendered":"

By RABBI DAVID WOLPE<\/p>\n

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So it was a particular thrill to have lunch last year with Garry Kasparov, perhaps the greatest player in the history of the game. Later he sent me his book “How Life Imitates Chess.” Particularly now, chess has lessons to teach us. It exposes self-deception, because you may think you are doing well only to discover the reverse. It requires patience, but also demands decision. It is humbling \u2013 even the greatest lose, and there is no bad bounce of the ball, the responsibility for your moves is always yours.<\/p>\n

The great world champion Emanuel Lasker, wrote: “On the chessboard lies and hypocrisy do not survive long. The creative combination lays bare the presumption of a life; the merciless fact, culminating in checkmate, contradicts the hypocrite.” Lasker was a friend of Einstein’s and a philosopher and mathematician.<\/p>\n

Kasparov is a political activist and his far flung energies embrace a variety of fields. Both, as with an astonishing number of great chess players, have Jewish roots. The insistence on self-examination, thoughtfulness, refutations and improvements, honesty, innovation, strategy, artistry and passion drive students of each to search for a kind of ultimate truth. There are 63 tractates in the Talmud and 64 squares on the board. The human mind will never fully master either for each holds limitless riches and wonders.<\/p>\n

(Rabbi David Wolpe is the senior rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles.)<\/em><\/p>\n

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