Last Friday was a notable day on the Jewish calendar – Purim Katan, the little Purim, so called because it was the 14th of Adar I in a leap year. Our observance of Purim is in Adar Bet, in one month from now. So to increase your joy in advance of Purim I’ll refer you to 3 Ice Jewish Boys: 3 Jews in USA’s figure skating delegation: Charlie White, singles skater Jason Brown, and pairs skater Simon Shnapir.
Then there’s the Israeli delegation: Figure skaters Alexei Bychenko and the duo of Evgeni Krasnopolski and Andrea Davidovich, as well as short-track speed skater Vladislav Bykanov and skier Virgile Vandeput are in Sochi to represent Israel.
How does Israel, a country which made the desert bloom, in which snow in Jerusalem makes international news, come to have 5 athletes in these Winter Olympics? Soviet Olim.
There is not a hockey team from Israel competing in Sochi. Ice hockey in Israel began to grow when several Russian Jewish émigrés, who had played professionally in the Soviet Union, began coaching in Metula, the site of Israel's first and currently only full-size rink. Most notable among these Russian coaches was Boris Mindel, a former defenseman on the Red Army Team, who established a junior program at the Canada Center rink in Metula.
Ice hockey in Israel received an additional boost of momentum when Roger Neilson, coach of several NHL teams including the New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs, opened a branch of his summer ice hockey camp in Metula and attracted young North American players to train and compete with young Israelis interested in the sport.
Back when nobody was getting out, we were getting out Jews. Made possible through Mahatzit Hashekel, which symbolizes shared giving and shared effort.
What does this have to do with the Parsha? Census taken by a contribution of a half shekel. Why a half and not a whole?
In the Talmud Yerushalmi we learn that Yohanan Ben Zakkai taught that at the time of the golden calf they transgressed 10 commandments, so to atone and equal number they gave Mahatzeit HaShekel, an amount equal to 10 Gerah.
Another idea: Samson Raphael Hirsch wrote, “Even the most complete and most perfect work of any single individual is never the whole…. Can never accomplish everything, the work of any single person will always remain but a fragment.” Requiring what? An equally devoted offering on the part of another. Out of a concern for others some in the Jewish world in particular are protesting the Sochi Olympics to protest the Russian government’s civil rights abuses, particularly with regard to the LGBT community. We should be concerned with what's happening in Russia, for each of us is only a fragment.
In the Talmud Yerushalmi we learn that Yohanan Ben Zakkai taught that at the time of the golden calf they transgressed 10 commandments, so to atone and equal number they gave Mahatzeit HaShekel, an amount equal to 10 Gerah.
Another idea: Samson Raphael Hirsch wrote, “Even the most complete and most perfect work of any single individual is never the whole…. Can never accomplish everything, the work of any single person will always remain but a fragment.” Requiring what? An equally devoted offering on the part of another. Out of a concern for others some in the Jewish world in particular are protesting the Sochi Olympics to protest the Russian government’s civil rights abuses, particularly with regard to the LGBT community. We should be concerned with what's happening in Russia, for each of us is only a fragment.
This week’s parsha also includes the episode of the Golden Calf & Moses breaking the tablets. Midrash & Talmud teach that the broken fragments are placed in the Ark along with the second set Moses eventually received. Why save those fragments of the shattered tablets? Because we don’t sweep away mistakes, errors, failures, we don’t simply forget –we remember and we learn from them.
Consider US ice skater Jeremy Abbott who fell, but he got up and kept going. He said, "As much of a disappointment as this is, I am not in the least bit ashamed. I stood up and finished this program, and I am proud of what I did in the circumstances."
Going for the Gold – how many times have we heard that expression in the last week? In the Olympics it’s the Gold Medals and in the Torah it’s the Golden Calf, sports and theology -- anybody know people who makes a religion out of sports?
Of course, they’re not here today – they’re out skiing, or skating, and this spring they’ll be on the golf course and the kids will be in little league. But that’s not what the gold is about – it’s about idolatry, and you can have that in sport as well as religion – when the gold is the God.
Anyone remember the origin of the Olympics? They were originally for the pleasure of the Greek gods who dwelt on Mt Olympus. The gods loved to see humans compete, struggle against one another. But that’s not what the God of Israel wants. Through the 10 commandments God challenges us to live up to the best within each of us, to achieve a life of mitzvoth- - which are also good deeds.
Lo Nitna Torah Ela L’tzreph et HaAdam – say the sages. The reason for Torah was given is to refine human beings – by practicing its precepts we refine our best qualities.
Sport is supposed to work the same way. The object is to do your best, to be your best, and medal or no medal, that makes you a winner. But there’s more. In Hebrew the word “L’Tzafef” to refine, can also mean “to join together”. It has the connotation of joining with others to achieve a goal. It implies teamwork. That’s something else the commandments are supposed to do. Unite us as a people – because no individual can possibly do them all – which certainly fits in with the theme of the Half Shekel as well; and the commandments are supposed to refine our behavior such that it reflects caring for all people – l’tzref.
Anything less is idolatry symbolized in Torah and sport by going for the gold.
To be fair, though, there are exemplary athletes on and off the ice. But you may have to go beyond the front page.
Russian cross-country skier Anton Gafarov was about a minute and a half into the men’s sprint free semifinals race when he fell. Hard. When he got up, he was struggling his way down the course on a broken ski, pushing himself along using only his poles for momentum. Just trying to finish.
“This is what the Olympic spirit is all about,” says the commentator on NBC’s stream, admiring the determination.
As he hits the downhill stretch into the stadium, Gafarov falls again. This time the ski looks shredded. “Can he keep going?” asks the commentator. “Will he?” Gafarov gets back up, now balanced on one ski.
And then, a man runs onto the course and, with the efficiency of a NASCAR pit crew, swaps out the broken ski for a new one so Gafarov can ski his way across the finish line – to uproarious applause.
That man was not Gafarov’s coach or teammate. Instead it was rival coach Justin Wadsworth, of Canada’s team, who ran out to help the struggling skier.
“I wanted him to have dignity as he crossed the finish line,” Wadsworth was quoted by the CBC as saying.
Both Wadsworth and Gafarov must have known that changing skis on the course is against the rules of international competition. But in that moment it seemed not to matter. “It’s kind of like seeing an animal in a trap,” Wadsworth said. “I just couldn’t let him sit there.”
That is what the Olympic spirit is all about.
He was going for more than gold. From the Half Shekel & Golden Calf there are lessons for B’nai Yisrael: sharing, sportsmanship, learning from our past, and uniting us as a people, connecting us one to another and to God.
Let’s go for it!
Let’s go for it!
