The Cabala of Baseball

“Baseball is 90 percent mental and the other half is physical.” Yogi Berra, widely quoted for his Yogi-Isms will throw out the ceremonial first pitch Thursday afternoon to open the new Yankee Stadium.

There are many cabalistic inferences to the game of baseball particularly the arrangement of the nine positions plus the batter which looks like the Ten Seferot known as the Tree of Life and the four bases corresponding to the Four Worlds of creation Atzilot/Close; Briah/Creation; Yitzira/Form; Asiya/Action.

To transverse all the bases is called a home run where you return to where you began; similarly with life—we come from a very pure place and will return to that place after life if our at bat was successful.

Not everyone can hit a home run and most of us depend upon others to knock us in. In heaven there are crowds of people cheering us on throughout our lives, booing when we make mistakes, but holding out hope until the end.

Yogi Berra, who is 83 years old (83 in Hebrew is Paz/Fine Gold personifies the game of baseball, a game which teaches a lot about life; my personal favorite of Yogi’s teachings is, “When you come to the fork in the road, take it.”