Neilah and the Tigers

Before Nei'lah (The final prayer on Yom Kippur) the Rabbi gave his speech to inspire us for one last prayer to G-d. He presumed many people were wondering why we needed one more prayer after a day of prayers.

He gave a "hypothetical" answer - You're playing teh final game of a 162 game baseball season, if you win teh game you win the pennant. By the 4th inning you have a 6-0 lead and one of your best pitchers on the mound (this scenario sound familiar?) You can't pop the bubbly assuming you won, you have to finish strong, and close out. Neilah is (lehavdal) the same idea you have to close out strong with a good talk with Lord.

Now that the Tigers collapse has an element of holiness to it since it (hopefully) inspired our shul to pray harder during neilah, in that Z'chus the Tigers will prevail this week over the Yankees.