Temple Solel and the Benefits of Chutzpah

Charlotte Jewish News September 2021

By Shelley Pawlyk

In the book “Outliers,” the author, Malcolm Gladwell, provides stories of success while linking those achievements to hidden advantages. He cites occurrences of success experienced in certain careers may be linked to the years in which individuals were born. He also provides examples of people who fall outside those norms, which gives more insight into how some may achieve more than others.

This gave me to pause to reconsider what success means and how likely the people Gladwell describes as outliers are to have what we know as chutzpah. They might not even be Jewish, but maybe they should be! Chutzpah is described as “extreme self-confidence. If you have chutzpah, you say what you think without worrying about hurting someone’s feelings, looking silly, or getting in trouble.” Chutzpah can also be a serious driver of survival and success – perhaps contributing to the development of outliers. It can also represent that endearing, clever, achieving attitude of and resilience of our people.

Recently, Jorge Castillo, staff writer for the Los Angeles Times wrote about the Israeli baseball team bringing past and present together. He wrote, “Shlomo Lipetz was on the first baseball team to represent Israel in an international event at Little League World Series preliminaries in Germany in 1989. He was 10. The Israelis were outmatched. In one game, they lost 51 to zero to a Saudi Arabian team filled with Americans.” Lipetz replied, “It didn’t scar me enough to stop playing baseball!” That’s some 10-year old chutzpah!

A powerful Israeli female runner caught my attention on Haaretz.com. “With her usual headscarf, skirt, and long sleeves, Beatie Deutsch was featured in Adidas’ ‘Impossible is Nothing’ campaign, which hopes to unite people through sports and expand the limits of human possibilities.”

Another writer from Israel, Lisa Klug, continues the conversation as though it were the same article. “Nothing about her story is normal. Deutsch, who narrowly missed competing for Israel in the Tokyo Olympics, came to the sport only five years ago. She began running after the birth of her fourth child – the fourth in six years. After losing too many informal races at family reunions on the beach, Deutsch decided to commit herself to training for a marathon to get in shape. Her first official race was the 2016 Tel Aviv Marathon, which she ran with a time of 3 hours and 27 minutes.”

These stories are important because they are not just “their stories”; these are “our stories.” We are in most cases those same outliers Malcom Gladwell writes about — the ones who overcome adversity, are sometimes not accepted, or even with the best education, not treated fairly. We use humor and laughter. We cry in each other’s arms. We relocate from other countries. We work hard to give our families what we did not have. We seek justice and peace not just for ourselves but also for others — shalom — nothing missing, nothing broken in our lives.

Pictured are Temple Solel’s youngest outliers. They make up a small but talented group of wonderful young people in our congregation, one primarily composed of baby boomers and empty nesters. The Pathfinder’s Kids Club had a great time led by Laurabree Monday who taught the kids how to make challah. The kids also created challah covers and went over prayers and reasons Jews eat challah. It was our first in-person event since the pandemic began when the original event had to be canceled. We are very grateful for the allocations we receive for our programs surrounding Jewish traditions to teach our children and adults who recently enjoyed hearing about Jewish traditions in Israel preparing for the High Holidays shared by Rabbi Steve Burnstein who leads Birkat Shalom in Gezer, Israel.

Rabbi Caroline Sim, director of rabbinical services at the ISJL, is booked to visit us October 8 and 9 for a Shabbaton. It will be determined closer to the date whether we will be able to still meet in person.

Temple Solel holds regular Shabbat services at 7 p.m. on the second and fourth Fridays of each month via Zoom during the pandemic and hopes to resume services when appropriate at Belair UMC Family Life Center, 8095 Shelley Mullis Rd., Fort Mill, SC 29707. For more information about the High Holidays, or guest speakers, see templesolelSC.org, write us at info@templesolelSC. org or call (803) 610-1707.