I often sense that there is a disconnect between what we preach and what we do.
Case in point: Hanukah. [W/o a "C" because then we would have to say "Chappy Chanukah" to preserve the alliteration.]
We talk about our battle with the Greeks. They represent the Olympics, sports, competitions, the idolization of the body. We represent holiness, the spirit, the importance of intellect and personal conduct, the negation of any value to athletic achievement. That is axiomatic and undisputed.
Yet, all over New York they have "Yeshiva League" sports competitions. HOW?? The entire concept is antithetical to our belief system. It sends a TERRIBLE message to our children, yet it continues unabated for many decades.
PLEASE!! Don't get me wrong. I am not against kids playing ball. Kids MUST play ball. I am not against having a good time. We must ALL have a good time. But when two schools compete against each other to see who is going to put the ball in a hoop more times, and hundreds upon hundreds of people come to watch, and there are coaches and refs and trophies [פסלים in Hebrew] and statistics and MVP'S etc. all imbuing the entire exercise a feeling and spirit that something VERY IMPORTANT IS GOING ON HERE, then we have crossed the line from healthy fun and exercise to "Avoda Zara Nusach U.S.A".
Until I was about 19-20 years old they brainwashed me as well with this lie that wins and losses matter and that my worth was tied up with my athletic ability. POISON. Sports don't matter one fraction of one iota. Z-E-R-O. But in Western culture sports are VERY important and that attitude carried over to Torah observant Jews.
Dovid Hamlech cried לא בגבורת הסוס יחפץ ולא בשוקי האיש ירצה רוצה ה' את יראיו את המייחלים לחסדו. HASHEM DOESN'T CARE HOW FAST YOU RUN WITH YOUR THICK LEGS. Cheetahs can run faster. Hashem wants people who fear Him.
I don't blame the kids. They are but products of their environment and are תינוקות שנשבו.
I don't blame the parents. They don't know any better and if they would read what I am writing they would just assume that I am a crazy religious fanatic who belongs in the "darkness of Bnei Brak" but not in the enlightened 21st Century America.
But what about the Rabbonim in the high schools? The principals who are often rabbis? They know better. Why don't THEY say anything??
Many of them not only don't object - they attend the games, cheer the kids on and treat the heroes with the same type of worship that the best of the NBA enjoy. What a pernicious attitude. If the score of a basketball game matters then Torah can't matter. It is one or the other. That is clear to anyone with any sense of Jewish values who is honest.
I once watched a ceremony from a popular high school where the principal, a talmid chochom and yarei shomayim I know personally, publicly went through each kid on the team, detailing his unique abilities on the court and bringing home the message that winning the championship is a tremendous accomplishment to be celebrated. He earns a top salary but I would like to believe that his Jewish value system is worth more to him than his prize job. Why doesn't he tell the kids the truth? That what really matters is what type of person you are, how you treat your fellow man, how much you learn and how intensely you daven and that the GREATEST heroes are the kids who foreswear the Internet because no 16 year old should have unfiltered access to the greatest source of pritzus and arayos in world history - and not some kid who can dunk. BIG DEAL. But no - all of the kids in his school walk around all day with their smartphones, texting and surfing, following their sports teams, while at the same time not being able to read a mishna properly.
A wonder.
It hurts me a lot because these kids are our future.
Let us remember the message of Chanuka all year round and send our kids to Jewish schools and not Jewish/Greek schools that are a shatnez of secular beliefs and ideals with some Yiddishkeit mixed in.
