These summer months always see us in the throes of the sporting world; with the absence of the football this year we still have the Cricket World Cup, Wimbledon, Women’s World Cup, The Ashes and the regular events like Formula One, Golfing to name but a few. Last year with the World Cup in Russia, England’s opening match was the most watched item of the year. Some 21.3 million people took the time out to watch it – the biggest live viewing for any BBC programme ever. What though is a thinking Jew supposed to think when one contemplates the sports world?
Let me share an idea about sports from the writings of Rabbi Akiva Tatz. In his book “The Thinking Jewish Teenager’s Guide to Life” tucked away in his chapter discussing, “Man & Woman, relationships and intimacy” is an incredibly deep idea behind sport. The chapter begins with the question, “Relationships. Man and woman. What makes this aspect of life so dominant, so powerful? Why is the culture around us so preoccupied with this subject? What is its true power and what is its place in Judaism”. In his unique style Rabbi Tatz weaves the beautiful Torah-based tapestry of this important part of life. He concludes by describing the climax of closeness in a relationship as being “moments during which the feeling of having arrived at a destination from which further movement is irrelevant, impossible…man and woman find each other most intensely. There, the experience is of life itself”.
He then goes on to explain that there is another activity that shares this same tremendous rich sense of arriving at a destination. Another activity that that is done entirely for its own sake – a game. Yes there are many reasons why a game is played but if we give it some careful thought we will see that ultimately the game is played for no purpose outside of the game itself. While engrossed in a game a person is completely wrapped up in it. Nothing else exists – it really is life or death. If we examine the make up of a game we will see that they really are just a string of trivial actions and process. There is no real worth to kicking a football and getting it to land in the net. Ultimately after losing a game one realises – however important the game was and how much was a stake – that it’s only a game. Yet, while engrossed in a game (or watching it) one is in a zone where one feels one has reached the end. A game shares that deep feeling of an ‘ends’ activity not a ‘means’. Building a cupboard is a ‘means’ to an ‘end’ – having a cupboard. However ‘playing’ is the ‘ends’ itself, and being involved in ‘ends’ creates an intense grip over us. While playing we feel we are fulfilling an end point – the goal(!) of life itself is satisfied. The inner craving of arriving at the destination is satiated similar to the intense moments of relationships!
It should therefore come as no surprise that in Hebrew, the language which describes things in their essence, the word for play is ’שעשוע‘. Playing means doing that which is an end in itself, that which needs no justification outside of itself. ‘Sha’ashu’a’ is made up of the root ’שוע‘ twice. ’שוע‘ means ‘to turn towards’. The double expression of playing thus means, ‘Turning towards the turning towards’! Movement towards the entity itself. That action of ‘Sha’ashu’a’ will cause the greatest feeling satisfaction. Being involved in activity of ‘Sha’ashu’a’ is the source of happiness, satisfaction.
There is another activity that is described as “Sha’ashu’a” – learning Torah. The verse says, “were it not for the Torah my toy (‘Sha’ashu’a’) I would have perished in my suffering”. (Many translate this verse, “were it not for the Torah my preoccupation”. This is the exact point we have made. When playing with a toy one is entirely preoccupied and is oblivious to anything else.) Torah learning contains the same elements as a game and as a relationship. When involved in it we (should) feel as if we have arrived; we are fulfilling our life’s goal – nothing else exists. We are engrossed in the ‘ends’. This is how to understand the verse in this week’s Parshah which reads, “this is the Torah regarding a man who would die in a tent” which the Gemora expounds to teach us, “the Torah is only established in the one who kills himself in the tent of learning”. Torah creates such an intense bond when learnt that a person should be willing to kill himself order to learn.
I once suggested that the word ‘Gemora’ comes from the word ‘gemar’ – completion. How so? When learning ‘Gemora’ the learning itself is the goal, the ‘gemar’, the end product. One can spend a session learning ‘Gemora’ only to find out at the end that you learnt the wrong understanding – as the Gemora often does. Does it make a difference? Of course not – it’s just a game! This is because the learning itself is the end product.
Let me end with a great story: The great Reb Aharon Kotler, Rosh Hayeshiva of Lakewood Yeshiva lay in hospital during his last days. In the same hospital was First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt – wife of the President of the USA. The manager of the hospital was amazed at the amount of visitors, well-wishers, and letters that Reb Aharon received compared to the President’s wife. He enquired to Reb Shneur as to whom his father was. “He is the Dean of the Lakewood Yeshiva”. The manager knew nothing about Yeshivas and asked “what exactly is a Yeshiva?” Reb Shneur launched into a brief description of a Yeshiva, “it’s a place where Jewish young men are trained to become Rabbis” he began. Upon hearing these words, Reb Aharon who for some days had been drifting in and out of consciousness suddenly opened up his eyes and in Yiddish called out, “zog ehm Torah lishmoh!” (Tell him Torah for its own sake!) Torah learning is not a means to and ends – it is the ends. So go and play with some Torah learning.
Good Shabbos, Yaakov