As regular readers of this blog are aware, the Monday post was usually devoted to sports with highlights and analysis of the Max Kellerman show which formerly aired on 1050 ESPN Radio. As Max has resigned from 1050 and has not yet resurfaced on the NY area radio waves, I have decided to continue the tradition of linking sports to Torah which I believe was an undercurrent of the Max Kellerman show.
Anyone with the slightest interest in baseball, perhaps even anyone with a pulse, has heard that Manny Ramirez has been suspended from baseball for fifty games in relation to his use of a banned substance. Ramirez's stated excuse was that "his doctor" had purportedly prescribed the medication and that neither he nor his doctor were aware that it was a banned substance.
While Manny's excuse smacks of "the dog ate my homework", baseball's current climate has made it that much less believable because of Alex Rodriguez's recent admission of steroid use and Jose Canseco's book where he "named names" of those who were using steroids.
The problem for baseball players today is that there really are no players left who are above suspicion. Now that a handful of prominent players have been exposed as steroid users, the average fan is skeptical of his former heroes and the players' acts of prowess will be forever tainted by the actions of the few.
In sharp contrast to the deceptive acts of the few which poisoned the views of the masses, I wanted to mention a story regarding the honest acts of an individual and how he influence others for good. I heard a story in a Rabbi Frand shiur a number of years ago about the Abudraham and how he earned his name. I had always assumed that the Abudraham was the last name of this Rishon. I was incorrect.
The Abudraham, besides being a talmudic scholar and writing perushim, also was a meat merchant. In those times, meat was sold by weight which in his location was measured in drahms. When a person came to buy meat in the Abudraham's shop, the Abudraham would weight out meat into single draham portions. As such, when a person would ask for three drahams of meat, the Abudraham would not use a three draham weight on the scale, but would instead weight out three individual draham portions.
One day, a non-Jewish man came into the shop and ordered seven drahams of meat. The Abudraham utilized his one draham weight and portioned out seven individual drahams and gave them to the customer. Not long after the man left the shop he heard someone running after him and asking him to stop. It was the Abudraham holding another package of meat. The Abudraham explained that he was concerned that when he was weighing each draham of meat that he might have had some which were lighter than one draham. The customer indicated to the contrary as he had watched the Abudraham and saw that each of the seven individual drahams were slightly heavier than one draham in weight. Still, the Abudraham would not leave the man with just the one package he had taken from the shop.
The customer was so impressed with the Abudraham and his honesty that the man decided to convert to Judaism. Thus the Abudraham earned his name Abu Draham (father of the draham).
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