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I’ve been a baseball fan off and on for most of my life. When my sons started taking more than a passing interest in the game, I began going to Yankee Stadium several times a year for some good father/son bonding, a relaxing night out, and occasionally, an exciting game. I’ve noticed that after the first few innings many people choose to spend more time at the concession stand than in their seats; the intense, drawn out middle innings require much concentration. Everyone enjoys the fireworks of big home runs, daring base running and acrobatic fielding but the intensity of a pitchers dual and a manager driven plan to manufacture runs is often lost on the casual fan. A well played game is a work of art, accessible to those who delve deeper.

Likewise, the interest in the weekly Torah reading, while strong with such diversions as plagues, sea-splitting, open miracles and ironic plot twists, tends to wane in the middle innings as well. The highly detailed instructions on the building and furnishing of the tabernacle (mishkan), and the specifics of the sacrificial rites often leave the casual fan heading for a 7th aliyah stretch.

But, as in baseball, once you are hip to the subtleties, the game unfolds in a calm beauty, and in each corner and behind every shadow lays a door to the inside- an illuminated corridor revealing the majesty of  creative energy.

In this hallway things are often not as they first appear. Is this a foreshadowing, a flashback, or are we progressing in an orderly, chronologically accurate fashion?

A careful reading of the text raises many, many questions, and identifying and grappling with these questions  brings us one level closer to the playing field.

For example,

Was the commandment to build the mishkan given before or after the tragic events of the Golden Calf? Why is the verse telling us to build it followed immediately by instructions to instead build the Holy Ark (which gets more playing time than any other details of the tabernacle), and why do we need to know all the mishkan’s micro details about intricate measurements, architecture  and textile engineering? Can we really derive meaning from minute grammatical inconsistencies? Is the entire mishkan an allegorical reference to creation itself?

Instead of offering any pithy insights this week I dare you to poke around for yourself! Take a casual tour of some major commentators like Rashi, Ramban, Abravanel, Kli Yakar, S.R Hirsch, Nechama Leibowitz. No easy access to Jewish books or source material? Ten or fifteen minutes and an internet connection will give you access to many, many ways to turn the mundane into the magical.

Is it any surprise that the commandment to build the mishkan comes at the same time we welcome in the month of Adar, our most joyous month, calendar home to our festival of physicality, Purim? The verse says, ” They shall build me a sanctuary, and I will dwell IN THEM”- We can indeed have a physical relationship with G-d! In fact, the name of the month, Adar, can be read as A(aleph, the infinite oneness)dar (dwells). During this auspicious month we should strive to connect with the divine spark that is inside each and every one of use. Put the ball in play by learning a little- don’t worry about hitting one out of the park, just get on base. You simply can’t lose…

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Greg

PS
Aren’t you glad I didn’t start this spring training edition of the parasha notes with “In the Big Inning…”

So, how hamishe is it for Jews to spend their time devoted to football? I guess it’s okay, as long as there’s a lesson to be learned from it, as deconstructed in this essay I found on Achas L’Maala V’Sheva L’Matta, a blog about “Everything you always wanted to ASK about the Chareidim [Ultra Orthodox] (but were afraid to KNOW).”

An interesting look at faith and sports, via the Kosher Beers blog.

The essay by Rabbi Benjamin Blech appeared on Aish.com:

The Tiger Woods episode presents a fascinating question that is connected to the heart of Chanukah: Does personal dereliction of character in any way diminish Tiger Wood’s standing as a sports hero? Should morality play any role in the way in which we judge people whose claim to fame is based on their expertise on the playing field? Is marital infidelity a sin serious enough to warrant Nike canceling his endorsement contract because Tiger no longer deserves the status of a hero — a man worthy of being looked up to as a role model?

The debate has passionate spokesmen on both sides of the issue. But for Jews sensitive to the spiritual messages of the holidays we should certainly include in our deliberations a truth central to the holiday of Chanukah that will shortly be with us.

You can read the entire essay here.

When the news first broke, people were rushing to judgment and the gossip tongues were wagging. Turns out the speculation that he was having an affair was true, but still, it just seemed unseemly, especially considering the Jewish prohibition of lashon hara, or running to tell tales.

Rabbi Jason Miller, who occasionally writes about sports on his blog contributed this piece, which goes to the adultery aspects of Woods’ situation.

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The Takeaway from Tiger’s Triple Bogey

When it was first reported that Tiger Woods was injured in a single car crash on Nov. 27, many suspected there might be more to the story. This was based on the fact that no one would believe that Tiger’s wife was simply testing the durability of the SUV’s windows with Tiger’s Nike driver.

Now, after days of refusing to come clean to the media about any personal indiscretions, Tiger Woods has admitted to marital infidelity. Like the public confessions of adultery often made by disgraced politicians, there will be those who argue this is a personal matter that should remain within the confines of the Woods family, as well as those who take the side that celebrities’ dirty laundry is to be aired in the free-for-all that is the public domain.

Tiger is a mega-celebrity and there’s no way around his private transgressions becoming public fodder. That’s the downside of celebrity. It sort of makes you wonder why “Average Joe’s” like the Balloon Boy’s dad, the White House party crashers, Joe the Plumber, and reality TV wannabes would really want to put their life in the spotlight. I’m sure Tiger learned long ago that fame and fortune would follow from his extraordinary talents on the golf course, but that the downside would be that his private life would no longer remain private. His lapses in judgment, while no worse than many a common man’s, would be the headlines on the covers of newspapers, websites, and tabloid magazines. Certainly, one lesson he has learned as a result of this event is that he really does need a press release for private matters. The public will fight until the story is revealed and that means no celebrity is free to take the Fifth when the media come calling.

No matter what your opinion of whether the media — and therefore the public — should allow Tiger Woods and his wife some privacy to deal with their “issue,” the fact remains that his adultery is now part of the public discourse. So, what is there to be learned from his mistake? Much like the time a decade ago when our president admitted his disregard for his marital promise of monogamy, the public will be discussing the issue of adultery yet again.

From the Jewish perspective, adultery is clearly a sin; the seventh Commandment prohibits adultery. Judaism unambiguously categorizes marriage as a holy act.

In Genesis, Joseph admonishes his seductress, Potiphar’s wife, telling her that adultery is a sin against God. Perhaps the most well known act of adultery recorded in the Torah is when King David bedded Batsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. That act led to the tragic murder of Uriah at the hand of David.

Adultery truly begins a slippery slope of negative actions. It leads to additional lying and cheating through denial. Furthermore, adultery never ends well because it is usually several people who get hurt.

We live in a time when the magazines in the checkout line portray celebrities as “just like us.” These icons supposedly grocery shop like us, drink their morning coffee, ride their bicycle, and yell at their kids in the park just like we do. They have lapses in judgment just like us, too. But of course, they are much different than us in reality because the average guy doesn’t have to issue a press release when he’s accused of cheating on his wife.

It is indeed sad that the greatest golfer in the world can’t keep his private affairs from the eager claws of the TMZ generation, but that’s just the dark side of life in the spotlight. Poor Tiger is desperately trying to fight his way out of the toughest sand trap he’s ever faced and we wish him well. But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn something from his ordeal.

Rabbi Jason Miller is rabbi of Tamarack Camps and the director of ATID: Alliance for Teens in Detroit. Read his most recent entry on Jews and sports here.

The Sheraton Suites has given us a room for our services and meals, which begin in about 10 minutes. Following tonight’s serv ice, Ron Blomberg, Marty Appel, and Irwin Cohen will speak about their Jewish live in baseball. More of the same tomorrow. After Havdalah, we’ll rejopin our teammates for a closing Banquet.

Good Shabbos, everybody!

Sunday the rabbi ran on the court.

No, this is not the title of a new book in the Harry Kemelman series about the detective rabbi.

Last Sunday, during the pre-season exhibition game between the New York Knicks and Maccabi Electra Tel  Aviv, Maccabi Coach Pini Gershon was ejected from the game but refused to leave the court at Madison Square Garden.

I’m sure the NBA had some concerns about the substitute officials who have taken over during the referee lockout. But they were probably not expecting a situation like this to take place.

Like most of these pre-season exhibition games with foreign teams, the Israeli team did not prove to be much competition for the NBA pros. The Knicks did not seem to have much difficulty on their way to their 106-91 ein in Madison Square Garden. Maccabi’s Coach Gershon seemed to be irked by the referees all game. Ironically, what sent Gershon over the edge was actually a foul on New York. When the Knicks’ Al Harrington was whistled for an offensive charge, Gershon complained to the refs. He was likely upset that Harrington argued the call but didn’t draw a technical.

The referee didn’t much care for Gershon’s attitude and awarded him his second technical foul of the night. The officials had no choice but to follow NBA league rules and eject the coach from the court following his second tech.

And that’s when the rabbinic intervention occurred.

According to the JTA report:

[Coach] Pini Gershon delayed play in Madison Square Garden for 10 minutes Sunday after he would not exit following his second technical foul in the third quarter.

Security officials from the NBA and Madison Square Garden tried to lead Gershon off the floor. Rabbi Yitchak Dovid Grossman of the youth village Migdal Ohr, which was benefiting from the night’s proceeds, also tried to intercede, asking officials to let the coach stay.

Rabbi Grossman apparently tried to appeal to the NBA substitute referees’ sense of teshuvah (repentance). Several reports stated that he told the ref  that if Coach Gershon is forgiven, it will be a wonderful example to the children in the crowd.

The NY Times article explains that the rabbi saw it as his duty to moderate. Not knowing that two technical fouls result in an automatic ejection, he attempted to persuade the referee to change his call and allow Gershon to stay.

“But he says that this is the law, that he must leave,” Grossman said, referring to the referee in broken English.

“What can I do? I tried. I tried to make peace.”

It was at that point that Gershon tried apologizing for his outburst, with Grossman behind him.

“This is not a regular game,” Grossman said he told the officials. “In a game for friendship, you forgive.”

Maccabi center Maciej Lampe, a 2003 Knicks draft pick tried to explain his coach’s behavior: “He’s a big person in European basketball, and he probably felt like he was being disrespected.”

Nevertheless, in the NBA, with all its Jewish team owners, Rabbi Grossman proved that even a rabbi can’t keep a coach from hitting the showers early following a second technical foul.

The bizarre situation confused everyone, especially the Knicks Nate Robinson.

“I was over there just trying to figure out what was up,” said Robinson, who added that the coach and the rabbi “started speaking a different language… It threw me off. I needed a translator,” said the two time NBA slam dunk winner.

Rabbi Jason serves as the Rabbi of Congregation T’chiyah  in Oak Park, Michigan.

(The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Kaplan’s Korner or the New Jersey Jewish News.)

The ball club was leading the National League by 6.5 games with a dozen left to play. The team was so confident, they printed their World Series tickets. Remember this was back in the day when there were no divisions, just the NL and AL pennant winners; kids, ask you parents.

Manager Gene Mauch pitching his staff into the ground, throwing his veterans on three and even two days’ rest rather than entrust the responsibility to his younger players. Sure enough, this was one of the all-time monumental falls to earth in sports history. At least until the 2007 and 2008 Mets pretty much mirrored the feat.

But it wasn’t really Mauch’s fault. It was David Bedein.

Who, you ask? Bedein, the Middle East correspondent for the Philadelphia Bulletin, writes in this mea culpa that it’s just as much on him. Had he been a good boy in 1964, had he just stayed in shul on Rosh Hashana instead on sneaking out out to Connie Mack Stadium to watch the Phils play the lowly Mets, all would have been right with the world.

But the Lord punished him. The Phils lost that game, and according to the writer, that began the downward spiral.

Problem is, like Moose Skowron of old, Mr. Bedein is a little mixed up on the facts.

The second day of Rosh Hashana in 1964 was Tuesday, Sept. 8, according to Hebcal.com. According to Retrosheet, the Sept. 8 game was against the Dodgers, not the Mets. And at that date there were still more than 20 games to go, not the final 12.  (Curse you, Rob Neyer).

I’ll give Bedein a pass on Frank Thomas’ broken thumb in the fifth inning, although it seems to have happened in the fourth.

Note: Bedein addressed the time-frame snafu in response to an email:

My memory was that they were playing the mets [sic] and that this was the beginning of the end. What you are reporting to me is that the end of the Phillies began on about Yom Kippur, which is the real Day of Judgment.

In an interview with YourNabe.com, Montero describes his routine, which includes a surprisingly sensitive declaration:

Any trouble from the police?

They’ve never stopped me. It was a concern at first, but they’ve never given me any trouble. The cops are cool, and no one really ever complains.

But Williamsburg has a large Orthodox Jewish population…

That’s in the southern part. I don’t run there, I want to respect their religion. I’m at the northern edge, near Greenpoint. I’m just loving life now.

I was trying to find a way to put a Jewish spin on it. Here it is, courtesy of Dov Moshe Lipman at AISH.com.

For we too have a glorious history with the greatest of leaders who have impacted the world for good. We have had many magnificent moments and have achieved far more than our meager numbers would indicate. Non-Jews sense this and world history has been filled with contempt, hatred, loathing — and at the same time grudging respect – for the Jew.

The Jew has been forced to play the game of life with one hand tied behind his back, yet he has somehow always succeeded. Throughout history we have experienced the thrill and ecstasy of accomplishment and greatness, yet have also fallen to the lowest depths and even into the abyss of despair. Our sins were never worse than those of the nations that surrounded us, but we are different and so we must behave better. Our national mission demands this of us.

I’m sure you could fill in the team of your choice and find other comparisons. A ball club that falls on hard times, or one that deals with adversity (such as the Angels with their recent loss).

I get where the rabbi is coming from, but as great as the Yankees have been, there’s quite a bit not to be proud of, such as being one of the last teams to put an African-American on their roster because their general manager was a racist. Or spending money like a drunken sailor (or shipbuilder?) and buying a pennant or two, especially in this down economy? I know it’s a business, not a philanthropic institution, butI just wish there were better corporate role models out there.

Just sayin’

This is the “original” design:

Compare that with this essay by Reb Reuven Goldfarb.

The major differences are almost strategic, with Abramson positioning the Yesod on the mound, the Tiphareth at second, and the Chesed as the first base umpire. Goldfarb, on the other hand, is more “offensive minded”: His Yesod is in the batter’s box, with the Chesed at second and Tiphareth pitching.

That’s one of the wonderful things about Judaism: the ability to interpret.