Sports

G-d is everywhere.
(A period ends my last sentence not an exclamation mark, why because he is there even when I don't feel him.)

Does Hashem really care about the outcome of tonight's game?!
Whether a guys lifts his right hand to call timeout or his left hand?

Lately I have noticed that players and commentators have come to mention more frequently terms such as the football gods, the sports gods for an explanation for that which in sports is unexplainable or just completely unexpected.

What we know about Hashem is that we can't understand him. Can't fathom him.

But what does he want us to understand?

That he is not able to be constrained by our expectations.

You think you know what is good, yeah you really do?

Which way is up you fool?

What is dangerous and what is safe?

What is best for you or what might be your downfall?

You really want wealth?! Let's see what it does for you?

You want to be famous? Really?! How does it feel to die young, a drug addict?

You want to be an angel, only good? Ba'al Karchach atah chai.

Oh so you start to see what is G-d.

So he picked Israel, why? Because they were the smallest.

So the angels wanted to sing at the Yam Suf (we see G-d, we understand what he is doing), Shtok my creations are dying.

The miracle of the Maccabees, the small against the many.

A built in mechanism (13 middos) so when you mess up like no one is able to mess up, I mean we just were able to experience not just G-d's presence (Har Sinai) but the underlining cause of this
whole story, Bechirah and that bechirah is greater that Chet HaEgel.

Ahron, does he get punished for his role? OK I understand Chag LaHashem Machor but please?! rewarded with Kehunah Gedola?! What am I missing?

It's amazing absolutely amazing that we know we have no intellectual ability to have an advantage gambling on football games yet hundreds of commentators give their predictions and even record their record. However bad it may be! Don't we know already that nobody knows what they are talking about! And they aren't even ashamed to admit it! Yet we read it with avid interest as if we are going to gain some semblance of added insight.

The three most lopsided football lines that I can remember are 1991 Bills vs. Giants, Bills are favored big, they lose. 2002 Rams vs. Patriots, Rams are favored big they lose. 2008 Patriots vs. Giants, Patriots are favored big they lose.

The playoff game between the Patriots and the Broncos was the highest rated tv program since the previous Super Bowl. What does this mean? Obviously that unscripted reality drama where we can't predict the outcome unlike Sitcoms and even reality TV is what we want to see. That even as we spend as much time figuring out the possible outcome it is always unexpected.

It is what we want yet we refuse to understand it.

The world thinks, how can a great powerful G-d busy himself with the minutiae of everyday life?
Yet there is a pattern and that pattern is to expect the unexpected.

Humans are the lowest of all creations yet we are the greatest and perhaps the greatest in comprehension. How so you ask? Angels can only comprehend that which they comprehend yet humans can comprehend that which we have no understanding of.

Which is greater Nigleh or Chassidus?

Nigleh or Chassidus?

Which is greater, Nigleh or Chassidus?
Well Nigleh is the Guf and Chassidus is the neshamah.
But we do know that the makor of the guf is that much greater than the neshamah.

I sit with a blatt gemorah struggle or no struggle and I feel amazing even on a day that the gemarah doesn't read itself. I chap a question of Tosfos or Rashi or the gemarah itself my mind is working in tune. I am one with the gemarah but do I feel that I am one with Hashem?

I sit with a Likutei Torahor Torah Or, davka with Likutei Torah or Torah Or, and I need to be able to understand it ( I can't understand (let's be charitable and say 50%) most of it). So I skip to a maamar that I understand and I am one with it, it is something greater than I. I am one with Hashem!
I disagree with Rav and Shmuel (I usually like the underdog) I even sometimes disagree with the Shulchan Aruch HaRav but Torah Or and Likutei Torah this fights through my layers and penetrates deep
and I am disappointed when I can't get to this state,

Unity

How is it possible to unite with people who are different than us?
It is not by seeking out in others their commonality with us,
rather by stripping away our externalities and becoming one with ourselves.
And that essence is what unites us.

The Jewish Take on Prison.

The Torah does not believe in incarceration for punitive purposes. Instead, in the case of a person who stole and cannot repay, the Torah rules that he be sold as a servant for six years, and the money is used to pay back the victim.

The Torah believes in rehabilitation, which does not happen in prison. It therefore mandates that the thief be brought into a home, and that his own needs and the needs of his family be provided for.

Allow the (non dangerous) criminal to remain within society and to contribute to helping the victim, and you help both the victim and the sinner.

Your Son

We all know those people. They'll take care of the entire world but will forget about their own family. They'll make time for everyone except for those closest to them.

Perhaps that's what lies behind the story of Hashem trying to kill Moses because Moses failed to circumcise his son. Perhaps the message to us is: go ahead, save humanity, but don;t forget about your own.

The Dreamer

I know a guy who’s a dreamer.

He’s always coming up with a new idea that is interesting but crazy at the same time.  He’s a nice guy (usually), but (almost always) out of touch with reality.

Is the dreamer someone lacking intelligence, allowing his imagination to take over, or is he someone who can go deeper then reason, to try, and sometimes succeed, to make connections that no one has made before, to connect two seemingly opposing ideas, and to innovate beyond any expectation?

We live in a dream.

We live in a reality in which opposing truths can coexist. Where one can love Hashem in one moment and love the world a moment later. Is that a good place to be in? Does that mean that the love of Hashem is just an illusion? 

One must understand, answers the alter Rebbe, that looking from our perspective this reality is indeed contradictory. However, in it’s spiritual source, there is no contradiction at all; because, in truth, the world and Holiness are, not opposites but, one and the same, both expressing the greatness of Hashem. 

We are frustrated because, in our mind, we are like the dreamer who does not realize that he is simultaneously entertaining two ideas that cannot coexist. Yet, in truth, we are not living a contradiction. In truth, we are the dreamers who can reach deeper then the perceived truths, we are the dreamers who are not afraid of apparent contradiction, and we are the dreamers who look at the world and see it for what it really is: an expression of Hashem. 

(Based on Torah Or Parshas Vayeshev, D”H Shir Hmaalos... Hayinu Ki’cholmim).

The Power of Youth

The Akeidah is the greatest lesson of commitment to Hashem recorded in the Torah. We look to Avraham for inspiration to carry us trough the most challenging of times.

Avraham himself also learned something from the Akeidah: he learned the power of Youth.

Avraham commitment to Hashem was inspired by the revelation, yet Yitzchak was able to do the same without any revelation.

Only after the Akeudah did Avraham understand the power and strength of the dediaction of the youth.

Therefore, immediately after the Akeidah, the Torah writes: “Avraham returned to his lads”. He returned to the lads whom he taught about Hashem, yet he returned to “hang out” with them, to learn about true and enduring commitment to Hashem.

He returned to experience the youthful dedication, enthusiasm and perseverance.  

(A "Kutsker" Torah)