Torah Inspiration

My wife at the time met a Rebetzin by the name of Deborah Kaplan, and started going to various luncheons that she was invited to. She was inspired. She brought me to the Kaplan’s Shabbos table and I really enjoyed it. We used to talk about methods of inspiration. I had read all the motivation books, all the sports books, about the great coaches, and all the inspiration and motivation you can get from that. Now I was getting interested in the Torah, I started to understand about real inspiration. This was it! This is what we need to be reading.

Shortly after, in August 2003, the Fort Worth Star Telegram in Texas included a story about me in their “Where are they now?” editorial feature. They write stories on sports celebrities, and on retired players, so the article was about “Where’s Veingrad now, ten years after the Cowboys won the Super Bowl in 1993?”

“Veingrad lives active lifestyle,” they wrote, and I read that, and I thought, “lives active lifestyle? What’s that about?” The article talked about me doing tae kwon do, martial arts, kayak fishing, bike riding, me playing with my children, me rollerblading and skateboarding, me doing landscaping in the yard, all these things.

At the same time I was spending Shabbos in the Kaplan home, and going to shul and connecting with the richness of Judaism. I read the article that was written about my ‘active lifestyle,’and it really hit me: “This is a shallow life! What is this?” That article was the catalyst for inspiring me to make some big changes in my life.