In the second episode of the famed TV series The West Wing, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Josh Lyman is pressed by his assistant for his picks for the week’s office sports pool. “Tell you what,” he quips after evading her initial queries, “can you give me Yeshiva University over the Dallas Cowboys?” The joke, of course, is that Yeshiva University is not exactly known as an athletic powerhouse.
On Sunday, however, the joke was on Josh Lyman, as the Yeshiva University men’s basketball team overcame an early 23-11 deficit to win their conference championship game by a score of 87-81 over the Purchase College Panthers. The victory capped a stunning underdog run that saw the #4 ranked Maccabees knock off the conference’s #1 seed in the semi-finals in a thrilling overtime win, en route to the team’s first ever berth in the NCAA Division III tournament.
Yeshiva joined the Skyline Conference in 1998. Before this year, their basketball team had never even played in the championship, let alone won it. Last year, they fell to Purchase College in the first round of the playoffs by the lopsided margin of 72-55. As one Yeshiva player put it in a post-game interview, “What better revenge than to come back and beat them on their home court for the championship?”
On Sunday, however, the joke was on Josh Lyman, as the Yeshiva University men’s basketball team overcame an early 23-11 deficit to win their conference championship game by a score of 87-81 over the Purchase College Panthers. The victory capped a stunning underdog run that saw the #4 ranked Maccabees knock off the conference’s #1 seed in the semi-finals in a thrilling overtime win, en route to the team’s first ever berth in the NCAA Division III tournament.
Yeshiva joined the Skyline Conference in 1998. Before this year, their basketball team had never even played in the championship, let alone won it. Last year, they fell to Purchase College in the first round of the playoffs by the lopsided margin of 72-55. As one Yeshiva player put it in a post-game interview, “What better revenge than to come back and beat them on their home court for the championship?”
[לא תקום?]
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People were REALLY excited about his. I am embarrassed. Jews excel in every endeavor. We are at the top of every profession, medicine, law, business, politics [look at how many Jews surround D.J.T.] etc. etc. I mean, it is WELL KNOWN that we run the worlds banks. [Or so say the Anti-Semites. I wish that they were right because then I would get a cut, but since I don't I doubt the veracity of that claim....] But when it comes to basketball all we can do is get to the DIVISION THREE [i.e. lowest] tournament. And then they were knocked out in the first round!
More seriously - is this what G-d wants? Does G-d value sports victories and tournaments? I believe that G-d wants us to play sports because it is healthy for body and soul and G-d commanded us to have healthy bodies and souls. But I have this nagging sense that there is something here at work more than just pure Avodas Hashem. I don't know what gives me that feeling.... Like, I can't see Rav Tzvi Meir Zilberberg being too excited about an NCAA berth [only in part because he wouldn't even know what that means].
Which really brings me to a core issue: The flagship Modern Orthodox institution has a very odd set up. In the morning, young impressionable boys are taught Torah and Yiras Shomayim by people who are great scholars and role models. In the afternoon they are taught by people who may believe that we are all overdeveloped monkeys who are here by some FREAK accident [BTW - The more I read and think about evolution, the more I believe that if it were true then it would be a bigger miracle than anything we have ever heard of and would convince me that there MUST be Divine Intelligence behind it. But until it is proven as not just theory but fact, I have many other very convincing factors on which to base my belief in G-d [like, ummmm, Maamad Har Sinai]. Maybe I will expand on this another time. Maybe I won't. I just daven that I am alive tomorrow and the next day and the day after that and have food to eat. There are no guarantees in life so we try to take nothing for granted... Not health. Not money. Not breathing unaided. Not life itself. LI-CHAYIM!!!]. Or people who don't believe that Jerusalem belongs to the Jewish people. Or by a transgender individual. Or perhaps by an Arab supporting, G-d denying, transgender individual, all in one [I wouldn't take his/her class:-)]. These are the teachers and they are not just teaching algorithms or economic theory but ideas and values. Yiras Shomayim and a traditional value system are not criteria for professorship. There are some professors who are fine Jews but many who are [they themselves would admit] far from it. Then at night - back to the Beis Medrash for more Yiras Shomayim. Then - writing papers to please their professors. Combine this with hormones at their peak, girls and [li-havdil] drugs easily available, an emphasis on sports and professional success, the openness to all forms of social media and what do you get??
A shatnez of Torah, post-modern philosophy, rabid Jets fan, success driven businessman who has little interest for the intense Talmud Torah he left behind. Maybe daf yomi or a shiur here and there. Maybe not even that. His smartphone is far more inviting than a teshuva of Rebbe Akiva Eiger. Go to shul before mincha or maariv and see how many people are using the few spare minutes to learn and how many on playing with their toy phones. [There are notable exceptions, Baruch Hashem]. I don't blame them. That is how they were raised and taught. It is rare to find a person who is able to transcend his upbringing and live in a completely authentic way. This applies both emotionally and spiritually ואכמ"ל!
I know boys who came out of YU who are Tzadikim and I must say that their accomplishment is far more remarkable than any boy from any other yeshiva who turns out well due to the incredible challenges they face. Plus, they have to attend college in the Dominican Republic. Not pashut. Que pasa, man??
The question is why we educate the next generation of Jews [young women face much of the same] in a way that should completely confuse them by constantly presenting them with contradictory values, ideals and role models.
As always I welcome emails that would enlighten me.
