Life Advice from a Long-time Swimmer: Swim 100 laps every day

The Tosefta quotes Rabbi Meir (2nd century CE Talmudic scholar) saying that everyone should strive to recite 100 blessings each day. It then goes on to enumerate them - mostly in daily prayers.

Let's play with the word for blessings. They are berakhot ברכות in ancient Hebrew. Okay then. In modern Hebrew the laps that one swims in a pool are called berechot בריכות. A blessing is a berachah and a pool - and a lap in a pool - is a berechah.

I playfully read the ancient Talmud this way: Don't say 100 berakhot (blessings), say 100 berechot (laps).

Footnote about Meir from Wikipedia: Meir was buried in a standing position near the Kinneret. It is said that he asked to be buried this way so when the Final Redemption occurs, Rabbi Meir would be spared the trouble of arising from his grave and could just walk out to greet the Jewish Messiah. He requested that he be buried in Israel by the seashore so that the water that washes the shores should also lap his grave (Jerusalem Talmud, Kelaim 9:4).

And so I have crafted some Talmudic encouragement for myself to swim 100 laps a day. On many days each year, I do get to that goal.

Here are a few of my past reflections on swimming...

Shall we fast and mourn on Tisha B'Av? No!

No. I believe we should abolish the practice of fasting to commemorate the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple on the ninth day of the month of Av, known as Tisha B'Av.

Now before you convene a synod to excommunicate me, know that I am in good company. In the third century CE the greatest Tanna, Rabbi Judah the Prince, tried to abolish Tisha B'Av.

My son Yitz called my attention to this passage below which records the rabbi's action [Soncino Babylonian Talmud (2012-04-25). Megillah and Shekalim (Kindle Locations 739-743). Kindle Edition.] and to Tosafot's glosses (at Megillah 5b) which reject the premise that someone could entertain the notion of abolishing Tisha B'Av.

R. Eleazar said in the name of R. Hanina: Rabbi planted a shoot on Purim, and bathed in the [bathhouse of the] marketplace of Sepphoris on the seventeenth of Tammuz and sought to abolish the fast of the ninth of Ab, but his colleagues would not consent. R. Abba b. Zabda ventured to remark: Rabbi, this was not the case. What happened was that the fast of Ab [on that year] fell on Sabbath, and they postponed it till after Sabbath, and he said to them, Since it has been postponed, let it be postponed altogether, but the Sages would not agree.

Of course, if Rabbi Judah the Prince (compiler of the Mishnah) once tried to abolish Tisha B'Av but the sages would not agree to it, I do not expect that the sages of our times will agree with me to abolish Tisha B'Av.

Yet here is why they should.

I concur that as a culture we need to remember the calamities of the past so that we can be vigilant and prevent the calamities of the future. But we need effective ritual memories that are clear and unequivocal. Tisha B'Av commemorates that the city of Jerusalem and the Temple in it were destroyed.

Because the city has been rebuilt in modern Israel, this befogs the symbolism of the past destruction and renders it less effective.

I have been mulling over this issue for thirty years or more. In 2012 I mused as follows (with a few edits added).

Is Tisha B'Av relevant? No I do not think that the fast of Tisha B'Av is relevant anymore. I need a holiday from Tisha B'Av.

That day was for a long time a commemoration through fasting and prayer over the destroyed city of Jerusalem and the Temple. I visited Jerusalem in May of 2011 (ed.: and again in 2013, and many more times since then) and can attest that the city is not desolate. It is without reservations, glorious.

Who then wants the bleak story to be told? Archetypally the militant "celebrity" archetype wants to keep recalling defeat, destruction and desolation, to spur team Jews on to fight the foes and to triumph at the end of time. That scheme may work for that archetype as long as the facts of reality do not fly smack in the face of the narrative. And when they do, what then? The narrative loses its force. It becomes absurd.

I cannot imagine Jerusalem in ruins. Period. And indeed, why should I perpetuate an incendiary story of gloom and doom into a diametrically opposite positive world of building and creativity? The era of desolation has ended.

For over twenty-five years, I've been lamenting the irony of lamenting over a city that is rebuilt. It's more rebuilt now -- way more -- than it was twenty five plus years ago. What do I do then about Tisha B'Av, the Jewish fast day of lament and mourning? Here is what I said those many years ago.

Summer at the Teaneck Swim Club, the Tenafly JCC Outdoor Swimming Pool + 10 more world class dramatic pools to think about

The start of summer swim season is nigh.

Today was cool at the TSC - about 70 in and out of the lap pool. A few of us braved the waters this weekend to inaugurate the outdoor lap season in Teaneck.

With nice weather ahead, I look forward to swimming outdoors every day in Tenafly or Teaneck at the JCC or the TSC.

And here are some of the other pools that I'd like to swim in...I've been to some of them...[reposted from 08].

Cool pools: 10 favorite hotel swimming spots By Gary Warner

The Orange County Register

Some like it hot. I do not. After a steamy day of going from museum to shop to cafe to hotel, I am in dire need of something big, cold and relaxing. No, not a beer. Well, OK, a beer would be nice, too.

I'm talking about a pool. A hotel swimming pool. A beckoning oasis of deep, crisp blue.

Over 10 years, I've dived and dipped into hundreds of Olympics, kidneys, minerals and infinities, from Bali to Baltimore. Most are fine but forgettable, so I cling to fond memories of laps gone by on my short list of classic dips. Come dive into the deep end of my list of favorite pools. You don't even have to shower before entering.

Is Olmypic Swimmer and Sex Symbol, Ryan Lochte Jewish?

No, we do not think that swimmer Ryan Lochte is a Jew. His national team bio does not specify his religion. We would guess from his last name that his family goes back to Dutch Protestant roots.

Wikipedia reports, "Ryan Lochte was born in Rochester, New York, the son of Ileana "Ike" (née Aramburu) and Steven R. Lochte. His mother is of Spanish and Basque ancestry and was born and raised in Havana, Cuba, while his father is of German, Dutch and English descent."

The Times' Style section had an extensive article about Lochte.

Ryan Lochte, Olmypic Swimmer and Sex Symbol

The U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte is poised to be the breakout star of the 2012 Summer Games, both in and out of the pool.

Ryan Lochte, Olmypic Swimmer and Sex Symbol - Slide Show

Mr. Lochte, 27, is being groomed to be a breakout Olympic superstar, with millions in corporate sponsorships.

Update April 2013: Lochte has an E! reality show, starting Sunday April 21 at 10pm EDT.

Here is a funny video interview about the show - watch to the end.

Hat tip to anonymous!

Talmudic Books for Kindle The Kindle Talmud in English

Shhh, Don't Tell Anyone. Deena Yellin Reviewed a New Book, "A Shark in the Mikvah"

I've taught classes at major state research universities where I described the practices of Jewish women's ritual immersions. As I recall my expositions always were met with amazed and confused stares and looks of "they-really-do-that?" disbelief on the faces of the students.

Deena Yellin wrote a nice review of an appropriately zany treatment in a new book of this idiosyncratic Jewish women's ritual of immersing in a mikvah bath each month prior to engaging in sexual relations. See her review and buy the book, There's a Shark in the Mikvah!: A light-hearted look at Jewish women's dunking experiences (Kindle).

But I really can't talk any more about this. Deena quoted me as I explained why we generally don't discuss this ritual.

...most women are hesitant to talk about any strange scenarios floating around at the mikveh because in their kallah classes before marriage they were taught to keep it all on the down low.

The tradition of silence about this subject is for good reason, said Rabbi Tzvee Zahavy of Teaneck, an author of several books about rabbinic Judaism and Talmud. “Sex is one of the most personal, sensitive and private domains of our lives, therefore we strongly agree by matter of social conventions to put some aspects of our lives off-limits to chit chat, gossip and public scrutiny.”

Nevertheless, the authors are gaining kudos for sharing the stories – some inspiring, some humorous and others downright embarrassing – to let veteran mikveh-goers know they are not alone and to encourage newbies to give it a shot.

Accordingly shh, please don't tell anyone about this review or book.

BUY NEW! Dear Rabbi: The Greatest Talmudic Advice NEW BUY!
Kindle Talmud in English @ $0.99
Whence and Wherefore @ $0.99
God's Favorite Prayers @ $2.99

Are Statins Kosher?

The NY Times Op-Ed, "Don’t Give More Patients Statins" by JOHN D. ABRAMSON and RITA F. REDBERG argues that no, it is not kosher to start giving more classes of people statins in order to prevent heart attacks.

I have a high risk profile but in June 2008 I stopped taking statins (and several other drugs). The "side effect" for me was liver disease - quite an "effect". My liver readings were so high that the doctor called me to tell me to stop the Lipitor statins immediately. I also stopped monitoring my cholesterol - no point doing that if you are not trying to magically reduce the numbers with drugs.

This past year I increased my aerobic workouts by more that 50%. I swim 1.5 miles a day. I finally had my cholesterol tested and not surprisingly the numbers were good - especially for the HDL good cholesterol, and the good ratio was high. I don't smoke, I reduced my bad activities, the stress in my life, by orders of magnitude. And I increased my good activities significantly - e.g. golf, etc. ;-) I lost weight - a lot of weight - by watching everything that I eat. And I do not plan on ever taking a statin again.

Now the drug industry wants to detach the statin prescriptions from the cholesterol numbers - and guess what? This is not going to mean that fewer people should take statins. It will mean that more people should take them. Get it? I sure as heck admire the chutzpah of those drug companies.

But in answer to our title question, no statins are not kosher. Even those "studies" that show some correlation between statin use and fewer cardiac incidents are suspect to me. The math makes no sense. Reduction of risk by 50% is actually reduction of incidents by 1%. And my guess is that some time soon real scientists will conclude that it is the reduction of smoking, not of cholesterol levels, that has lead to the decline in cardiac disease in recent years.

Here is what Abramson and Redberg argue in the Times.

ON Tuesday, the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology issued new cholesterol guidelines that essentially declared, in one fell swoop, that millions of healthy Americans should immediately start taking pills — namely statins — for undefined health “benefits.”

This announcement is not a result of a sudden epidemic of heart disease, nor is it based on new data showing the benefits of lower cholesterol. Instead, it is a consequence of simply expanding the definition of who should take the drugs — a decision that will benefit the pharmaceutical industry more than anyone else.

My Fifteen Minutes of Swim Fame with Diana Nyad

Wednesday night (10/9/2013) I swam with celebrity endurance swimmer Diana Nyad for fifteen minutes in a specially built 2-lane 40-yard pool in front of Macy's on Herald Square in New York City. (If you do not know who she is - read about her here.)

Nyad was garnering publicity for Proctor and Gamble, who sponsored her 48-hour in pool endurance swim, and she was raising money for Sandy Relief and she was getting a pool-load of promotion for herself. And that is totally okay, in fact it is highly admired part of the American way of life to be an entrepreneur like that.

Now it's not as if I was the only person in the city to swim with her. Richard Simmons and Ryan Lochte and other celebrities and a whole bunch of common people swam with her.

Now you ask, how did I get this swimming honor? Did Diana read my book, "God's Favorite Prayers" and say to her staff, go see if you can convince Rabbi Tzvee to swim with me? Did Ms. Nyad read my essay, "Hudson River Diary" about my swim struggle in the New York Triathlon and feel the need to induce me into yet another swimming challenge?

No and no. I am a common person, not a celebrity. This opportunity came to me in parts by chance, by timing, by the good efforts of my wonderful friend who found out that I could do this and sent me the link to apply and by my love of swimming and by my continued chutzpah.

On the Swim with Diana Application Form it asked and I answered:

Briefly, tell us why would you like to swim in the Nyad #SwimForRelief?: 

Diana inspires me. I identify with her dedication. I am a rabbi who swims 1.5 miles every day. I swam in the NYC triathlon in the Hudson this summer. Like Diana, I swam 100 miles this summer too - but it took me all summer.

And they wrote back right away that I'm in and gave me a great time-slot in which to swim.

And how did it feel? What was it like to swim with a celebrity at Herald Square? I'm told it was really cool. And it was deemed cool by all objective measures by my friends and family members who came to cheer me on.

But I felt that this was a delightfully strange thing to be doing. And in the pool, when it came my turn, Diana had been swimming for 35 hours. Up close, when I got in and looked at her, she looked really tired. She had just put on some insulating swimwear to keep her warm even though the pool was heated to 82 degrees. The air was 55 and there was a night chill around us.

Before we started to swim on schedule at exactly 8:10 PM, her assistant told her to say hello to me and she did say hello. So I said, "I'm Tzvee." I think she said, I'm Diana, and I said I know that.

She swam really slowly. I had a hard time keeping from swimming ahead of her. Then after one lap of 40 yards, she turned on her back and she started to kick. I did a really slow backstroke. We did this back and forth for 6 or 8 more times. At some point she stopped to get an inhaler from her assistants and they tried to feed her a spoonful of yogurt. I stopped too. I felt it would be rude if I kept swimming while she was pausing.

This was a painstakingly slow swim. And yes. It was cool, like no other event I've ever been in. We raised money for charity. We marketed products. We entertained New York and we continued to promote Diana's story of inspiration - that a 64 year old woman could endure an incredible 100 mile swim.

So that was my so-called-cool Fifteen Minutes of Swim Fame with Diana Nyad.

Pictures and Video Clips

To Raise Money for Sandy Relief Tzvee Will Swim With Diana Nyad in Herald Square - Please Help

I'm swimming 8 PM Wednesday night 10/9/2013 at Herald Square in NYC with Diana Nyad to raise money for Sandy relief.

Please make a donation to sponsor our efforts.

See the webcam here.

Diana Nyad wrote -

48 Hour Swim for Hurricane Sandy Recovery via AmeriCares

To mark the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad - fresh off her landmark swim from Cuba to Florida - helps power disaster recovery efforts through a 48-hour test of mental, physical and emotional endurance: the Nyad Swim for Relief. With the strength and support of P&G brands at her side, Diana Nyad swims for 48 continuous hours in the heart of New York City to raise funds for the AmeriCares Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund.

Fundraising Websites - Crowdrise
The Nyad Swim for Relief reflects the emotional and mental strength it takes to overcome adversity and restore a sense of normalcy to lives disrupted by disasters. P&G brands Duracell, Tide and Secret are underwriting all production costs for the Nyad Swim for Relief, maximizing the donated funds that directly support Sandy recovery activities. In the months following Hurricane Sandy, AmeriCares distributed more than $6.4 million in aid to help survivors, including $3.5 million for medicines and relief supplies and $2.9 million in grants to community organizations providing services such as storm clean-up and mental health counseling. And the recovery efforts continue with so many storm survivors still in need of help.

Hurricane Sandy caused approximately $70 billion in damage across the Eastern seaboard, destroying 12,500 homes in New Jersey alone. To-date, in Ocean County, NJ, more than 25,000 residents are still displaced from their homes and in New York FEMA has again extended its deadline for Transitional Sheltering Assistance -- demonstrating the continued need for these recovery efforts.
A 40-yard, two-lane pool is installed in Herald Square for the event, allowing the public to witness Diana’s incredible display of perseverance while learning about AmeriCares important work of rebuilding lives.

How you can help:

Make a donation to AmeriCares Sandy Relief Fund.

Share the word with friends and family about this important event and fundraising effort (social media links are located above) and encourage them to join in.

Cheer on Diana by sending words of encouragement using the hashtag #SwimForRelief. Submissions may be showcased at the pool, shared with media and featured across Nyad Swim for Relief activities.​
- See more 

Is Diana Nyad Jewish?

No, as best as we can determine, endurance swimmer Diana Nyad is not a Jew and does not practice any religion. She professes to be an atheist. Diana discussed her atheism with Oprah (10/2013), "Oprah tells atheist swimmer Diana Nyad that atheists don’t believe in ‘awe’ and ‘wonder’".

She is one tough and determined woman. And she is an inspiration to us all to persevere. Even after having to abandon her goal to swim in open waters 103 miles from Cuba to Key West Florida several times, first more than thirty years ago, she returned to the water to try again. Her blog is here.

She finally did it 9/2/2013! "Diana Nyad completes Cuba-Florida swim." We identify so strongly with Dina Nyad because we swim over 400 miles a year. True, we don't swim 103 mile open water courses from Cuba to Florida all at once. We swim in a pool, one mile and a half a day. It took us all summer to swim 103 miles (and we did that! including one harrowing mile in the Hudson River!)

Diana claimed at age 62 to be in the best shape of her life. What an inspiration. And we mean this personally. Diana set a goal years ago and could not reach it. She tried again in 2011 and 2012 and had to stop. But that did not deter her from her determination to try once again.

She did it in 2013 at age 64 and the message she sends to us is loud and clear and utterly simple. If you have a goal that is worthy, keep at it. There is no shame in failure. Get up. Try to meet your challenge again.

God bless you Diana for your example of grit and determination. Godspeed to you. Swim on.

(Hat tip to Yitz who found out about the swim in Israel.)

Times: Lap Swimming in the NYC Outdoor Public Pools

From The New York Times: "The Water's Fine, and So Is the Competition - Lasker Pool is part of the city's Lap Swim program, where outdoor swimmers can compete."

...It’s no secret that New York has outdoor public pools that are open throughout the five boroughs in July and August. What you generally find are parents and young children, and teenagers horsing around. Lesser known is the Lap Swim program, open from 7 to 8:30, a.m. and p.m. for Early Bird and Night Owl sessions. It’s a quiet, orderly affair, where adults swim laps in roped-off lanes in otherwise empty pools...

Is it kosher to bring a gun to the swim club?

Unless we are talking about a super-soaker toy, no, not in my backyard. It is not kosher to bring a gun into my swim club. I don't really care what the gold old boy yahoos in West Virginia do - see the story below. Just don't bring any gun to the Teaneck Swim Club or the JCC where my friends and relatives go to swim in safety.

And by the way even the toys are getting downright dangerous. Consider you can "ice" your friends with the NERF SUPER SOAKER ARCTIC SHOCK Water Blaster - about which we are told by Hasbro:

This powerful soaker lets you freeze your friends with icy blasts of water! The ARCTIC SHOCK soaker’s Ice Drum has a large 25-fluid-ounce capacity and you can fill it with ice for a super-chilled soak. Fill the drum and pump for a freezing blast of water at targets up to 30 feet away! The Ice Drum works with other Clip System SUPER SOAKER blasters (sold separately) and SUPER SOAKER Water Clips work with the ARCTIC SHOCK soaker. Fill additional Water Clips (sold separately) and use them to refill fast. Put the competition on ice with the ARCTIC SHOCK soaker!

From ProPublica, some dangerous summer news.

Now, You Can’t Ban Guns at the Public Pool
by Lois Beckett, ProPublica

If you feel unsafe at a public pool in Charleston, W.Va., you may soon have the right to lie there on a towel with a handgun at your side.

For 20 years, Charleston has been an island of modest gun restrictions in a very pro-gun rights state. But its gun laws — including a ban on guns in city parks, pools and recreation centers — are now likely to be rolled back, the latest victory in a long-standing push to deny cities the power to regulate guns.

Since the 1980s, the National Rifle Association and other groups have led a successful campaign to get state legislatures to limit local control over gun regulations. These "preemption" laws block cities from enacting their own gun policies, effectively requiring cities with higher rates of gun violence to have the same gun regulations as smaller towns.

Is Geraldo Rivera Jewish?

Yes, attorney, journalist, writer, reporter and former talk show host Geraldo Rivera is a Jew. Rivera has worked with distinction for 40 years in TV journalism and entertainment. He has hosted the program Geraldo at Large, and appears on Fox News Channel.

In February 2013 Rivera disclosed that he was considering running for the Senate as a Republican candidate in New Jersey.

Rivera was born July 4, 1943 at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City (where this blogger was born some years later). He is the son of Lillian (née Lillie Friedman), a waitress and a cashier for the E. J. Korvettes store in Massapequa, N.Y., and the late Cruz "Allen" Rivera (October 1, 1915 - November 1987), who managed a kitchen at Republic Aviation, formerly in Farmingdale, N.Y. Rivera's father was Puerto Rican of Spanish ancestry and his mother is of Ashkenazi Russian Jewish descent. According to Wikipedia, Rivera was raised "mostly Jewish" and had a Bar Mitzvah.

We met Geraldo's wife Erica one time {10/4/2010) at the JCC on the Palisades where she served on the board of directors (and swims laps in the pool). The couple resides in Edgewater, N.J., with their young child.

Amazing Shanghai glass bottom swimming pool in the sky

Rooftop pools are nothing new. But now CNN reports on a 24th floor pool that juts out and has a glass bottom. Quite awesome and breathtaking. Makes us want to take another trip to Shanghai.

CNN also reports on the worlds 15 most spectacular swimming pools.

Now that the weather has moderated, we continue on our incredible summertime 100-laps-a-day-program.

Israeli swimmer Yakov Toumarkin finished seventh in the final in the 200 meter backstroke

Israeli swimmer Yakov Toumarkin advanced to the final in the 200 meter backstroke in the London Olympics.

He finished seventh. We are proud of this achievement.

Is Michael Phelps Jewish?

No. Michael Phelps is not a Jew.

Phelps is the all-time Olympic medal winner with 19. Newsday reported on 7/31/2012:

Phelps swam into history with a lot of help from his friends, taking down the last major record that wasn't his alone. He took the anchor leg for the United States in a gold medal-winning performance of the 4x200-meter freestyle relay Tuesday night, earning the 19th Olympic medal of his brilliant career, and the 15th gold.

By winning 8 gold medals at the Olympics in 2008, Phelps eclipsed the record of 7 Olympic gold medals in a single Olympics, set by Mark Spitz in 1972 in Munich. Mark Spitz is considered to be one of the greatest Jewish athletes of all time. Spitz spoke about Phelps in an interview with ESPN.

The efforts of Jason Lezak, a Jewish swimmer on the American team, helped insure that Phelps would indeed win 8 gold medals in the 2008 Olympic games.

Michael Phelps was back in the spotlight in February 2008 because of the publication in News of the World of a photograph of him smoking marijuana.

The Talmud of Swimming

In a Talmud-like fashion, the Times discusses which of the two main styles of swimming the freestyle is superior, more effective, or as we would like to say, more kosher.

"Delineating the Perfect Swim Stroke," by GRETCHEN REYNOLDS, describes the dispute over whether the best stroke is the drag or is the scull.

Here is how the article explains the dispute between the "ancient saints" of swimming and the "House of Counsilman." (It helps if you chant this out loud in a sing-song Talmudic fashion.)

...until Doc Counsilman weighed in, it was widely believed that swimming, for humans, involved primarily drag forces. You pulled against the water, like someone paddling a canoe, your arm remaining straight, palm perpendicular to the body. This stroke technique is often called a “deep catch” style of swimming, since you pull long and deep against the water.

Coach Counsilman was convinced, however, that lift could and should provide a majority of the propulsion for human swimmers, and that the way to generate lift was to scull, or move the stroking arm through an S-curve underwater...

We've always decided the Halakhah of the stroke in favor of the House of Counsilman, mainly for the reasons that the article describes.

44 New Talmudic Books for Kindle | The Amazing 36 Volume Kindle Talmud in English | Whence and Wherefore | God's Favorite Prayers

Times Mag: Does Swimming Make You Smarter?

Yes, according to an article in the Times Magazine, "How Exercise Could Lead to a Better Brain" by Gretchen Reynolds, swimming does make you smarter.

The value of mental-training games may be speculative, as Dan Hurley writes in his article on the quest to make ourselves smarter, but there is another, easy-to-achieve, scientifically proven way to make yourself smarter. Go for a walk or a swim. For more than a decade, neuroscientists and physiologists have been gathering evidence of the beneficial relationship between exercise and brainpower. But the newest findings make it clear that this isn’t just a relationship; it is the relationship. Using sophisticated technologies to examine the workings of individual neurons — and the makeup of brain matter itself — scientists in just the past few months have discovered that exercise appears to build a brain that resists physical shrinkage and enhance cognitive flexibility. Exercise, the latest neuroscience suggests, does more to bolster thinking than thinking does...

Just how exercise remakes minds on a molecular level is not yet fully understood, but research suggests that exercise prompts increases in something called brain-derived neurotropic factor, or B.D.N.F., a substance that strengthens cells and axons, fortifies the connections among neurons and sparks neurogenesis. Scientists can’t directly study similar effects in human brains, but they have found that after workouts, most people display higher B.D.N.F. levels in their bloodstreams...

We swim a mile a day. That's why this blog is so darn smart.



The Kindle Edition of the Classic Soncino Talmud in English
Talmudic Books for Kindle on the Talmud, Bible, Kabbalah and Prayer

Is endurance swimmer Alex Meyer Jewish?

We do not know if endurance swimmer Alex Meyer is a Jew. We are looking into it.

But it's really of no consequence what his religion is to appreciate his dedication to the sport of swimming, our favorite sports activity.

The Times has a long and eloquent article about Meyer and swimming. In it Meyer tells us,

...“My philosophy is, you have to have the right screw loose to be a good endurance athlete,” he said. “You look at the best ones, they’re crazy.”

Meyer, 23, a former freestyle standout at Harvard, established himself over the summer as the top American man in open-water swimming, performing well enough at the world championships in China to secure a spot on the 2012 United States Olympic team in the men’s 10-kilometer event.

Describing the appeal of the sport, Meyer said: “There’s something beautiful about man at his absolute breaking point. It hurts and it hurts and you keep pushing. Your body says no but your mind says yes.” He added, “It’s like a feeling of euphoria...more in the Times...

...More on Meyer

"God's Favorite Prayers"

Is Japanese Ironman Robot Evolta Jewish?

We thought at first that we had evidence that no, Japanese Ironman robot Evolta is not a Jew. News stories report that the 20 inch robot will compete in the Hawaii Ironman in October.

And we know that the Ironman race in Kona Hawaii is going to take place on Yom Kippur this year, October 8. We talmudically concluded that Evolta is probably not a Jew.

Note that Jewish ironman athletes are upset by this timing of the Kona race. But in fact, there are not a lot of (religious) Jews who qualify for the difficult event.

We personally completed one real leg of the ironman event. Last January (2011) when we were in Kona, we swam out into the ocean from the Kona pier and back on the 2.4 mile open water ironman swimming course. We swam with other swimmers who come regularly to work out at the site. We did not try "yet" to complete the other two legs, the 112 mile bike route or the 26 mile marathon run. See the map.

It turns out that Evolta will complete the ironman course over a span of several days in October, but not on Yom Kippur. Accordingly, we cannot use this information to judge whether the robot is Jewish.



Evolta is a cute little fellow. Actually it appears that he is a team of three robots, each one designed for another part of the ironman event, as the picture shows. The Daily Mail explains, citing the inventor:

Of the three bodies, which include one mounted on a tiny bicycle and another in a round hoop with a supporting rear wheel, the 51-cm (20 inch) high swimming robot -- mounted on a curved, fin-like blade with its arms stretched out -- presented special challenges.

'I had to think of the ways to make it waterproof and protect it from rust, as much as possible,' Takahashi said.

We point out that many or most Jews will be in another grueling ironman event on Yom Kippur, October 8, this year. The "pentathlon" of the five synagogue services recited by Jews while fasting in a 24 hour span challenges even the best conditioned spiritual athlete.

CNN: Diana Nyad Started Her Cuba to Florida Swim

Diana Nyad has begun one of the boldest attempted sports feats ever.

We pray for her to succeed.: "(CNN) -- Diana Nyad's personal test has begun. At 7:45 p.m. ET she jumped into the water and began her 103-mile swim between Cuba and Florida...."

See "Nyad: Today's swim shows 60s 'not too late' for goals," by Matt Sloane, CNN.