SHABBAT SHALOM!
As many of you know, I love to play basketball. I
started liking it in 3rd or 4th grade – even before I
could reach the basket. At some point I just started to pick up a
basketball and play with it.
Now I’m one of the key players on one of the legendary teams
of the sporting world: the Bi-Cultural Bobcats.
I’ve been a Bobcat since fifth grade. Now I’m a
starter, and I pretty much do it all – scoring down low, rebounding, passing,
defending – and I shoot from the outside too.
In fact, a few weeks ago while I was in the rabbi’s office,
I became the first student ever to hit three shots in row from all the way in
the back near the stairs.
So I love basketball. And I was happy to find out that
my Torah portion of Vayakhel-P’kudei teaches valuable basketball lessons.
Or to put it another way, basketball teaches some valuable lessons that
can be applied to my Torah portion!
And here they are:
1) The portion teaches us about the observance of Shabbat.
Shabbat is a time when we should refrain from the types of work mentioned
in my portion, describing the construction of the sanctuary in the wilderness.
But we need a rest from all that. In basketball, that rest is called a
timeout – or a player substitution.
2) In speaking about the Shabbat, the Torah says that we
should not light a fire anywhere on that holy day. Commentators say that
the verse doesn’t just mean not to light an actual fire, but also not to let
yourself get angry or otherwise “burned up” over anything.
In basketball, it’s always important to keep your emotions
in check. If I take a shot that I think is going in, but for some reason
it just doesn’t, I resist the temptation to get upset – you have to let it go
and go right on to the next play.
3) The portion also teaches us that everyone has an
important role to play in the construction of the tabernacle. It’s all
about the power of “we” to get things done.
On the court the same thing is true. Everyone has a
different job to do, and everyone has to give a full effort or there is no way
to win. Also in the portion, everyone contributes to the cause to the
best of his or her ability.
4) Today is also Shabbat Ha-Hodesh and the special added
reading describes of the night of the Exodus. That night had to be well
planned out – much like a Passover Seder is today – and a basketball game too.
The team has to practice lots of different plays and have a
strategy going into each game. When the time comes to take action, you
can’t hesitate. The Israelites had only a short time to pack their bags
and leave Egypt. The clock was running down – much like someone who
has the ball, they can’t hesitate before putting up a shot at the buzzer. The
Bobcats have had two buzzer beaters in the recent past.
My mitzvah project is going to be a charity basketball game
at BCDS to raise money for The American Heart Association and The Fairfield
County Lymphoma Society, in memory of my two grandfathers. I know for
sure that it will be fun and very successful.
In the end there is one big difference between Judaism and
basketball. While in March Madness you start with many and end up with
only one team standing; in Judaism, you start with one person standing up here
and you end with many, many others who join in to help. Today that one
who is standing here - is me. But I know that I am part of a much larger team.
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