The Torah Center Introduces Boxing for the Spirit

The back room at Congregation Beth Tefillah in Sandy Springs usually echoes with the melodies of the daily Hasidic prayer services. However, on a recent night, the chairs were pushed back and the sounds of worship were replaced with the thwack, thwack, thwack … of leather gloves landing practice punches on a pair of punching mitts.

The mitts belong to Zahir Raheem, who, during his professional career, was known as Z-Man. He’s a former Olympian and a three-time world boxing champion.

Even though he retired over a decade ago from his career in the ring, he still retains the slender, muscular body that threw knockout punches in 21 of his 35 professional fights. He lost only 3 contests and his amateur record was even more impressive. In 213 fights, he only lost four matches, and he was a member of the 1996 USA Olympic Boxing Team.

He moves around the synagogue meeting room shouting encouragement to the small group of men, several of whom may have laced up a pair of boxing gloves for the first time. But it doesn’t matter to Raheem, who is here, tonight, for one of a short series of introductory boxing classes. The goal is maybe work up a sweat while developing a new respect for a challenging athletic skill that Raheem emphasizes, combining strength and stamina with inner emotional discipline and resilience.

“I love doing this, man, I love doing it,” he tells his quietly respectful students. They seem impressed by this 49-year-old former champ who still retains the solid muscular body and energy of a man half his age.

“When I stepped into the ring,” he continues, “I didn’t have time to think. I had to trust a higher power. And how did I do this? Preparation, meditation, praying, affirmation. It’s not just about the physical man, it about the spiritual man. Everybody is fighting for something. We all have a struggle somewhere.“

It’s a message that certainly resonates with Rabbi Ari Sollish, head of The Torah Center at Congregation Beth Tefillah, who brought his two teenage sons along for the practice.

In the Hebrew month of Elul, which just precedes the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, observant Jews like those who attended the class may not often put on the gloves, but they prepare themselves, spiritually, much like this champ, the Z-Man.

In a break from throwing several punches of his own, Rabbi Sollish adds his own spiritual message for this special time in the Jewish Year.

“We believe G-d orchestrates everything in our lives and puts us in places we need to be. Jewish spirituality teaches us that every place we’re in needs our attention. Boxing is not just throwing your arms out, it’s about how we pay attention to each moment in our lives that makes what we are doing here tonight so beautiful.”

In recent years, the Chabad movement has been an inspiration for more than just a few middle-aged punchers in Sandy Springs. It helped produce boxer Yuri Foreman, who grew up in Israel but came to America to further his career. He wore a Star of David on his trunks and was a student of the famed Chabad Rabbi in Brooklyn, DovBer Pinson. He studied Talmud and Jewish mysticism in the morning and trained in the afternoon. Foreman told one interviewer that it was a good mix.

“I needed an outlet — a spiritual backbone, so I could push myself better,” the boxer was quoted as saying, “channel my energy, be more present.”

In 2009, he went on to defeat Daniel Santos to become the World Boxing Association’s super welterweight champion, becoming the first observant Jew to hold a world title since Barney Ross did it in 1935. Seven years later, he was ordained a rabbi at the Rabbi Pinson’s IYYUN Institute in New York.

“As I was maturing, as a person and as a fighter, I realized I needed some sort of spiritual center to achieve things physically, especially in boxing where you need to have good spiritual form and good physical form.”

Rahim Zaheer knows all about the importance of having a strong spiritual background. He literally was raising himself on the streets of North Philadelphia when he first walked into the ABC Gym there, falling in love with boxing, and turning his life around.

Today, he’s a practicing Muslim, who seems quite at home, teaching boxing in Sandy Springs, in a room filled with kippahs and an occasional tzitzit garment.

“In boxing, I found peace and love and happiness. We are all energies regardless of our faith. I don’t look at how big or small you are or the color of your skin. I only look at your energy and who you are.”