“RABBI’S MUSINGS (&
AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Ki Sisa
14 Adar 5774/February 14, 2014
(Written for Ashar’s ‘Ashrei News’)
Despite the fact that all of his fellow
sixth graders were major sports fans, Eddie didn’t know much about sports. In
fact, Eddie didn’t know anything about sports. Eddie was more excited to
discuss politics, science, and weather patterns than he was to discuss players
and stats. It was quite frustrating for Eddie when he wanted to tell his peers
about the polar vortex, and how the freezing cold and all of the snow was a
direct result of global warming. He couldn’t figure out why his classmates just
weren’t interested. But even more than he loved meteorology, Eddie really loved
ecology. He loved animals and plants (fauna and flora, as he called them) and
he was always talking about protecting the earth and the animals.
You can only imagine Eddie’s shock this
week when, during lunch, he overheard his classmates discussing an
environmental anomaly that had occurred. Eddie only heard bits and pieces but
he was able to make out the basic story. It seems that 43 sea hawks had swooped
down and completely decimated 8 Broncos, while the Broncos were on the run. One
kid said that the Broncos had been destroyed. The boys said it was an
embarrassment, but Eddie felt like it was a shocking tragedy.
Eddie couldn’t get over the story. How
could it have happened? Eddie knew that the sea hawk, known as the Osprey, is a bird of prey which lives near
water, which provides it with an adequate food supply. What was most strange
was that the sea hawk's diet consists almost exclusively of fish. They surely
don’t eat or attack broncos, which are untrained wild horses, and live in
completely different terrain than sea hawks.
One of the boys mentioned that when this
happened there was a major safety issue with the broncos. Eddie laughed to
himself, “Well duh, Copernicus! Obviously there is a serious safety concern if
this happened.”
What poor Eddie failed to understand was
that his peers weren’t discussing sea hawks and broncos, but rather members of
two football teams. All sports players take tremendous pride in their Jerseys , which bear their team name, insignia, and color.
Fans spend a lot of money buying sports memorabilia and clothing so they can
proudly identify themselves with their team. Seahawks and Broncos are emblems
for the players and fans to identify themselves with.
The first half of Parshat Tetzaveh
details the formation of the special uniform which the Kohanim and Kohain Gadol
wore. We can only imagine how proud the Kohanim were to wear those special
clothes during the time of the Bait Hamikdash. We too have special clothes
which define us as Torah Jews. Men have a kippah, tzitzit, and tefillin, and
women have the laws of tzniut. We should wear our special clothes with
shameless pride, proud to espouse that we are part of a special people with a
special mission.
On February 17th, America
Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos,
R’ Dani and Chani Staum