Adidas Caved. Shalev Biton Didn’t.

Adidas apologized this week for featuring an Israeli amputee in an ad, and I’m still trying to figure out what exactly they were apologizing for.

Shalev Biton lost his leg in 2021 when Hamas fired an anti-tank missile at his IDF vehicle. He survived, rebuilt his life, became an athlete, and Adidas Israel featured him in a campaign promoting a service that lets amputees buy a single shoe instead of paying for a pair.

Then came the outrage. Anti-Israel activists called for a boycott because Adidas had featured a former IDF soldier. And Adidas caved – they apologized for the “offense.”

Cowardly? Yes.

But there’s a much more important story here. We’re approaching Rosh Hashanah, and there’s something fascinating about the Hebrew word שנה — shanah, year.

The same letters keep showing up around change and renewal.

Shoneh (שונה) means different.

Shnaim (שנים) means two. You’re no longer in one state. There’s another.

Shinah (שינה) is sleep. You shut down and wake up refreshed.

And Shen (שן) is a tooth. We literally lose one set and grow another.

A שנה, a new year, is supposed to do something to us. Time passes. Things happen. Sometimes terrible things happen.

The question is: do we stay exactly who we were?

Shalev didn’t.

He lost his leg to Hamas and rebuilt his life around a completely new reality. He trained, adapted, and became an athlete.

People thousands of miles away can scream about an Israeli amputee appearing in an Adidas ad. While Adidas can cave and apologize because apparently even the sight of an Israeli who survived is too much for some people.

Let them.

Because that contrast is everything. The Jewish people have more important things to do. For thousands of שנים, people have tried to break us. And somehow, every שנה, we find a way to build again, grow again, become שונה.

Maybe that’s the real story here. Rosh Hashanah is coming.

What happened to you this past year? And what are you going to become because of it?

May this coming שנה bring real renewal to all of us. And may we keep building no matter what gets thrown at us, and become the people Hashem wants us to be.