Brookwrite

Luck of the Jewish

Welcome to the year 5777 -- the luckiest year in the Jewish calendar in the next thousand years, and in the last thousand.

Given the history of the Jewish people, the ratio of one lucky year out of every 1999 is about right. Seven is a widely held lucky number. Of course, Judaism can't have just one answer to anything, so it has many important numbers, which could potentially be considered lucky: 7, 10, 13, 18, 40, 120, 1969, and 867-5309.

Luck doesn't stop with numbers, though. The world is replete with lucky objects, specific to different cultures. Familiar ones include four-leaf clovers, rabbit's feet, pink hearts, yellow moons, orange stars, and blue diamonds. But, Sandy Koufax to one side, how many Jewish good luck charms come to mind?

Yes, Judaism has a long history of luck, if you count bad luck. But without bad luck, would the Jewish people really have no luck at all?

The next time someone nearby looks over a four-leaf clover that they've overlooked before, take heart. Then take a moment to think of Sukkot, and Judaism's own four-piece vegetation.

While not usually thought of as a good luck charm, the four species of the lulav -- the lulav (palm frond) itself, hadas (myrtle), arava (willow), and etrog (lumpy lemon thing) -- symbolize luck in many ways.

Foremost, shaking the lulav during Sukkot indicates having survived another High Holy Days and, more important, another series of High Holy Day sermons and services. It also means we survived sukkah assembly with a minimum of frayed sheets or frayed nerves, and we got hammered rather than hammering ourselves.

(Editor's note: The preceding passage initially mentioned screws instead, but some people's mothers read this column.)

(Editor's note: The preceding editor's note didn't actually come from the editor. Neither did this one.)

Some people carry a rabbit's foot, seemingly to symbolize having more luck than the rabbit did.

Similarly, at Passover each year, the seder plate has a shank bone. The Haggadah respects baseball season by talking about how it symbolizes a sacrifice. However, the shank bone's true origin -- and good luck lineage -- comes from a ballgame of a different color.

In ancient times, after a kicker shanked a punt for fifteen yards or less, a "shank bone" was removed from his leg. The team would then need a new kicker, thus bringing the prospect of better luck to the team.

That might sound barbaric by today's standards, but ancient coaches made no bones about it. It also explains why few NFL teams go through the expense of drafting kickers.

Some people carry a lucky coin. Judaism. Money. Financial advice: Spending time regurgitating those jokes is a bad investment. (Also good career advice.)

The rainbow is the most famous arc since Noah's ark, and it originated right after that odiferous voyage. It's considered lucky in many cultures, whether infused with droughts (California) or draughts (Ireland).

It was created by the Big G as a symbol of promise to Noah to never again wipe out the entire earth with a flood. Despite the unfortunate loophole that portions of the earth could still be flooded (coastal cities, malls on Black Friday) it was, in fact, the original Arc of the Covenant.

For generations, horseshoes have been considered lucky. For horses, they're a symbol of being able to afford footwear. Unattached, they're a symbol of good luck for people, originally because this indicated they were not attached to a horse when playing horseshoes.

In ancient times, the Israelites were required to remove their shoes before entering holy places, such as the tabernacle. This was back in the day when places of worship did not allow horsing around.

Israelites considered themselves lucky to be in the presence of a holy place that required removal of shoes. Perhaps modern day attendance would improve with Shoeless Shabbat.

Doug Brook didn't write about the election because no single biblical or historic precedent could do justice to the injustice of this year's unpresidential compaign. The only thing we have to fear is 11/9 itself, and what we'll wake up to. To read these or any other past columns, visit http://brookwrite.com/. For exclusive online content, like facebook.com/rearpewmirror.