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World Cup 2010 - Soccer from a Chassidic point of view
With the kick-off of the 2010 world championship football (or soccer) in South Africa on the 10th of June it has been reported that millions of persons will be watching the games for the coming weeks. About half a million spectators are expected to travel down (or up) to Johannesburg this month. "From everything that one sees or hears about," taught Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, "one should derive a lesson in the service of the Creator." Let’s take a deeper look at the Chassidic perspective on all this attention.
During Shabbos Parshas Shemini, in the year 5740, the Rebbe actually spoke about soccer. He quoted the Talmudic dictum that “The world was created for my sake” [Sanhedrin 37a.] and the pasuk “The world is round like a ball” [Yerushalmi, Avodah Zarah, 3:1.]. Well, said the Rebbe, if the globe, or the ball, is given to every Jew, then the purpose of each one is to bring the globe into the goal, the “Gate of the King.” [Book of Esther 4:2.]
The Rebbe continues: “However, it is not in G-d’s plan that bringing the globe into the “Gate of the King” be accomplished without opposition; on the contrary, there are those who “surround us, ready to destroy us.” [Passover Haggadah]. This implies the existence of an opposing team challenging the Jew at every opportunity. In the same way that the Jew wants to put the “ball” in the “King’s Gate,” so too his adversary has his own plans to put it in the “doorway of Gehinnom (purgatory).”[ Eruvin 19a.]
However, it is specifically the threat posed by this opponent that charges the Jew with the motivation to win. Chassidic teachings explain that the desire for victory pushes us to reach much deeper within ourselves and discover our hidden potential. Just as a king in wartime empties his treasury in order to win, it is the battle with the adversary that spurs us all to find new abilities.
This type of conduct is evidenced in sports, specifically in soccer, where two teams oppose each other’s efforts to score a goal. Ideally, the players are not primarily motivated by the money they receive (although of course they must be adequately compensated for their training and effort). Rather, it is their personal desire for victory that is the main motivator.
As in sport, in life one cannot move sluggishly. We must keep moving with vitality, running and jumping to overcome the challenge. This type of service is carried out not just with the brain or heart (though thought and emotion are important) but with the action of the feet. Only by means of putting our Jewish learning into vigorous practice can we hope to emerge victorious in our quest to put the globe in the “Gate of the King.”
As Yanki Tauber wrote to “never […] underestimate the power of the feet. To advance the ball towards its goal, we make use of the full array of our faculties, from "head" to "foot"--our minds, our capacity for feeling, our talents and our physical energy. But our most important faculty is the "feet," which represents our capacity for action and "mindless" obedience. Although it constitutes the "lowest" and least sophisticated of our faculties, it is our unequivocal commitment to the divine will and the physical action of the mitzvot that has the greatest impact upon our world and is the most powerful force for its advancement and ultimate realizatio.
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