In sun-dappled woods,
four leaves whisper easy luck
I learn to bind light.
My first time worshipping an idol was at Camp Winnebago when I was eight. I was walking in the forest on a sunny day, when a found a four-leaf clover. I stared and marveled at it as I envisioned the luck it would bring me. I imagined the candy it would provide, the toys it would summon, the good fortune it would pour into my life. I hurried back to the bunk and showed my bunkmate, Jack, waiting for him to wonder at it as well. Jack took the clover, put it in his mouth, and swallowed it. My idol disappeared in a single gulp. As an eight-year-old, I learned the Torah’s first principles in a simple, stern way: “You shall have no other gods before Me… you shall not make for yourself a graven image” A four-leaf clover is not a covenant.
My second idol lasted longer. After college, backpacking through Europe, I visited Monaco and the Casino de Monte-Carlo. With some beginner’s luck I won big…big for newly minted graduates anyways. I decided to stretch the streak by keeping one poker chip. I called it my “lucky coin.” I saved it for years. Before important calls or meetings, I’d hold it, as if its plastic edge could tilt the universe. I even gave each of my daughters a “lucky coin,” passing along not just an object but a belief. Then, sometime in my forties, I lost mine. I didn’t look very hard to find it. Jacob once said, “Put away the foreign gods… and purify yourselves,” and he buried them under a tree at Shechem. I didn’t bury my coin; it slipped away and I let it stay lost.
After October 7, 2023, I committed to laying tefillin each morning. Holding my great-grandfather’s tefillin, I felt lineage and legacy. I believed in the purpose and felt prayer’s quiet force. I prayed for each of my family members by name, for their hopes and the strength to meet their struggles; for our hostages and IDF soldiers; for leaders to have courage; for my daughter Caroline and Quincy’s wedding to be filled with joy; for Joan’s success on her certification exam.
In late September and October 2025, blessings unfolded. The wedding was luminous with nachas; Caroline and Quincy were filled with joy, and our family and friends stood in harmonious support. Joan passed her certification exam. Miraculously, our living hostages came home. A week later, Joan saw me laying tefillin one morning, noticed my emphatic fist pump when I finished, and asked why. I told her I was simply grateful that so many of my daily prayers were being answered. Where I once clutched a casino chip, I now bind a mitzvah: “Bind them as a sign upon your hand and let them be frontlets between your eyes” I no longer reach into a drawer for luck; I wrap my arm and head with faithful focus, enrobed in familial tradition.
Today, at the JNF world event (which my niece Gabrielle helped organize), I heard Omer Shem Tov speak about surviving 505 days in captivity. In the absolute dark he spoke each morning to Hashem,—First he asked how God was and whether there was anything he could do for God. Then he thanked God for breath, even as Hamas starved him in their terror tunnels. Omer credits faith with sustaining him through what should have been unsustainable. His story revived my heart.
I look back with incredulity at the things I worshipped: a clover that could be simply swallowed, a poker chip that could be luckily lost. I also see that I once prayed only for myself, selfish and soulless, an object for an outcome. Now I pray with God, asking Him to help my family and our world toward life and fulfillment. Friends have asked me to pray for them; though I felt ill-equipped at first, I prayed anyway.
I am resolved: I will not serve false idols like a lucky coin or a four-leaf clover. I’m reminded of golf legend Gary Player. After a round that included two chip-ins and a near hole-in-one, he was asked, “How are you so lucky?” He said, “The harder I practice, the luckier I get.” I’ll revise it: “The more I practice with faith, the more I pray the luckier I get.” I still believe in luck; the difference is that I now hold a deep and divine sense of gratitude.
Luck slips through my hands;
leather binds morning to heart—
gratitude abides.
Additional Reading
Omer Shem Tov
Omer Shem Tov, 22, was abducted by Hamas from the Tribe of Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023. He was held underground in Gaza for 505 days, enduring prolonged isolation and starvation. He was released on Feb. 22, 2025, in a cease-fire exchange. Since returning home, he’s become a public advocate for the remaining hostages, sharing how daily prayer and gratitude sustained him in captivity and meeting communities worldwide to keep attention on their release.
You can watch a segment from a talk he gave here and read a profile on is advocacy work here.
Torah references:
- “You shall have no other gods before Me… you shall not make for yourself a graven image” (Exodus 20:3–5).
- “Bind them as a sign upon your hand and let them be frontlets between your eyes” (Deuteronomy 6:8; cf. 11:18; Exodus 13:9,16).
- Jacob once said, “Put away the foreign gods… and purify yourselves,” and he buried them under a tree at Shechem (Genesis 35:2–4)
- JNF (Jewish National Fund)Since its founding in 1901, Jewish National Fund USA’s passion, commitment, and vision for the future of Israel and the Jewish people has remained clear and unwavering.
