Men’s basketball semifinals are tomorrow, finals are on August 24. USA men’s basketball has not won a gold medal in 8 years (Sydney Olympics). That has led hoops fans to a crushing disappointment in the players: the bling, the laziness, the hubris, the selfishness. The teams and their failures seemed to reflect something much greater than the game.
But, in both sports and Judaism, there is almost no thing so terrible that it can not be redeemed. This year’s men’s Olympic basketball team has adopted the name, “Team Redeem” (an obvious play on the “Dream Team” moniker bestowed on the 1992 lineup which included Larry Bird, David Robinson, Michael Jordan, et al.). As Prof. Neil Gillman teaches, Jewish ideas about redemption involve three levels: individual, group specific (i.e., the Jewish people), and universal.
In Beijing, the promise of redemption seems to be unfolding according to the Jewish model. The team and the Olympic men’s basketball program has regained credibility already. The story of individual redemption is best embodied (according to ESPN) in Dwayne Wade. Three years ago, Wade was at the top of his game and led the Miami Heat to the NBA Championships. Sportswriters called him “Flash.” In the past two years, he has floundered on the court and performed best on TV commercials with Charles Barkeley. Critics tagged him with the name, "Crash." Wade chalks up the hard times to poor health. He ran himself ragged in that championship season and never took time to recover and get strong again. So, he drained more energy, sustained injuries, needed two surgeries and it showed in his game. Dwayne Wade feels better, stronger, and healthier. He learned his lesson and got the rest and recovery that he needed.
On August 24th, if they make it to the finals, Wade and the team could bring group and national redemption with a gold medal. Even if they don’t, we can use the occasion to start preparing ourselves for the big showdown with redemption on the Jewish calendar. We have just over a month until Rosh Hashanah. That day we take over the role as Team Redeem. We have a month of Elul to prepare (our Olympic trials), Rosh Hashanah is our preliminaries round and Yom Kippur is the final. Get yourselves healthy and strong. Get your mind focused and bring you’re “A” game. We’re going for gold.
No comments:
Post a Comment