Moshe Rabbeinu, Tom Brady and The Role of Desire in Attaining Our Goals

Next week’s Super Bowl will feature Tom Brady starting his record setting 7^th football championship game for the New England Patriots. Yet Tom Brady almost didn’t get a chance to play professional football. In 2000, 198 players were picked in the draft before him. Brady was not picked until the sixth round. This was the scouting report on Tom Brady before the draft: "Poor build, very skinny and narrow, lacks mobility and the ability to avoid the rush, lacks a really strong arm.”

So how did he become one of the best quarterbacks in the league? His teammates will tell you that it is his desire to win- whether at football or even backgammon. Brady himself has said that the key ingredient to achievement is the desire to succeed. As he has said,

“A lot of times I find that people who are blessed with the most talent don't ever develop that attitude, and the ones who aren't blessed in that way are the most competitive and have the biggest heart.”

This sentiment may be what the Talmud in Sanhedrin means when it tells us that Rachmana liba ba’I, “G-d wants the heart: Hashem requires that we really desire our goals in order to succeed. To achieve anything in life, you have to really want it.

In Parshat V’eyra, Moshe once again expresses his reluctance to God about leading the Jewish People:

But Moses spoke before the Lord, saying, "Behold, the children of Israel did not hearken to me. How then will Pharaoh hearken to me, seeing that I am of closed lips?"

יבוַיְדַבֵּר משֶׁה לִפְנֵי יְהֹוָה לֵאמֹר הֵן בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֹא שָׁמְעוּ אֵלַי וְאֵיךְ יִשְׁמָעֵנִי פַרְעֹה וַאֲנִי עֲרַל שְׂפָתָיִם:

The Ramban asks an interesting question. If Moshe is worried about fulfilling his Divine task due to his speech impediment, then why didn’t Hashem just cure him? The Ramban poignantly answers that Moshe was never healed- because Moshe never asked for it. 

It’s not enough to complain about something, wish for something to happen or mention the need in passing. To attain achievements, whether a pure gift from G-d or in conjunction with our hard work; whether eloquence in Egypt or greatness on the gridiron we need to want it in order for it to happen.