Rashaan Salaam [known to his friends as "Salaam Allleeeeiiiikhem!!"], a former running back who won the Heisman Trophy [this is a פסל given to LAAARGE men who are especially adept at playing with the skin of a חזיר] in 1994, was found dead [last November] in Colorado. He was 42. Rashaan Salaam was a star athlete in high school at La Jolla Country Day School and a highly sought-after college football recruit. He went on to play for the University of Colorado, where he won the Heisman. “Rashaan will be remembered as one of the greatest football players to ever wear a Buffs uniform, even better than Ally Ehrman and his sister Naomi, and his 1994 Heisman Trophy brought great prestige and honor to the university,” Philip P. DiStefano, the chancellor of the University of Colorado, said in a statement. Mr. Salaam was a first-round selection in the 1995 N.F.L. draft by the Chicago Bears, with whom he played three seasons. He became the youngest N.F.L. player to rush for 1,000 yards in a season.
But his promising professional career was cut short by injuries, fumbles and marijuana use, which he reflected on in an interview with The Chicago Tribune. “I had no discipline,” Mr. Salaam told The Tribune in 2012. “I had all the talent in the world, you know, great body, great genes [I know how he feels - Ed.]. But I had no work ethic, and I had no discipline [ditto]. The better you get, the harder you have to work. The better I got, the lazier I got.” (By Liam Stack, New York Times, December 6, 2016.)
Rabbi Frand:
The Torah quotes an interesting dialogue between Yaakov and the Angel. The Angel asked to be released because it was morning and he had to go back to heaven. Yaakov responded that he would not release the Angel until he gave Yaakov a blessing. The Angel asked Yaakov what his name was and, when Yaakov answered, then told him that he would no longer be known as Yaakov, he would from here on be called Yisrael. Then Yaakov turned the tables, and asked the Angel what his name was. The Angel responded, “Why are you asking me what my name is?…” Rashi explains the Angel’s response as, “We Angels have no set names — our names are dependent on the current mission on which we are being sent.”
I once heard a very relevant interpretation of this dialogue from Rav Chaim Dov Keller, the Rosh Yeshiva in Telshe of Chicago. The name of something defines it. Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch compares the Hebrew word for ‘name’ (shem) with the Hebrew word for ‘there’ (sham). A name defines an object. It tells us where it is and of what its essence consists. Yaakov told the Angel, “We have had a battle and I know that this will be an ongoing battle. Explain your essence to me. What are you all about? Let me know your ‘name…’”
The Angel’s answer to this question was “It does not help to know my name, because I am not just one thing that you will have to conquer.” The Angel (who is known as the Satan, Yetzer Hara) alluded to the fact that throughout the generations he would be changing… All the tests and all the philosophies and all the battles that we have had to fight throughout the generations are embodied in this one Angel. He could in fact not define his essence for Yaakov because the nature of his essence (which represents our struggle with Eisav) keeps changing. Sometimes it pushes us from one direction, sometimes it pushes us from the opposite direction. It is always a different fight.
This is the archangel of Eisav. “It does not help for me to tell you my name. There is no battle plan. I cannot tell you this is who I am because I am ever changing…” “May you remove the Satan from before us and from behind us” [Evening Prayer Liturgy]. Sometimes the Satan steps in front of us and prevents us from doing mitzvos. Sometimes the Satan appears in back of us and pushes us to do mitzvos. That can also be the Satan. He has no strict definition as to who he is. He does not fit into easy definitions. He has no ‘name’. The battle with the Satan which is the battle with the Yetzer Hara (evil inclination), which is the battle with the archangel of Eisav, is an ever changing battle.
The quest and achievement of great personal growth is within everyone’s reach. It does not need to be through dramatic or overbearing efforts, rather by taking small daily steps. To start take a small step and you’re on your way.
Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe describes the process (Aley Shur Vol. II, Page 189): “It is normal for a person who wishes to rectify the world to think of a grand method that encompasses great breadth, or of a global organization for peace or justice. Someone who wishes to mend himself also thinks of great and impressive actions of kindness or holiness. What completion can arise from small deeds, which barely require effort to accomplish?
Yet, the truth is that a person is built specifically from small deeds. The practice of medicine serves to illustrate the point: The quantity of the active ingredient in a given medicine is tiny, perhaps one milligram. If the medicine would contain a larger amount of this ingredient, it would cause someone damage rather than heal him. He might even die… This is the first principle of working on oneself: by no means should the method of labor be burdensome.”
