By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, Jewish Sound Columnist
Dear Rivy,
Is it “Jewish” to be so saddened and consumed by loss of a football team — or any professional sport? Personally, I am not this way. But surveying the Facebook postings and media reports after the Seahawks lost the Super Bowl, it’s all about the extraordinary blow and the sadness. Is it OK to mourn something that is not holy or symbolic of our connection with God? Is it purely human, making it acceptable because we are emotional beings that God created? Or would traditional Judaism say that the sports world is trivial and frivolous and detracts from that which is sanctified, such as our observance, health, family, livelihood, and freedom?
In just one letter you punted quite a number of issues. First, you toss out the issue of the sadness that many Jewish Seattleites are experiencing as a result of our city’s painful loss. This calls to mind the relationship and loyalties that we Jews are expected to have in regard to the cities and countries where we are living.
The second matter is the whether or not there is an ideal emotional state of being for Jews: Happiness and joy versus sadness and mourning, and the ensuing challenge of then achieving said desirable emotional state.
Finally, you wonder about the question of a Jewish approach to sports and physical activity. Quite the scrimmage.
Three biggies. All taking the field on account of an interception. Now, if only the ball had gone to Marshawn Lynch, who might have barreled through the Patriots defense for a Seahawks touchdown. Boy life would be different. Just ask Pete Carroll.
That said, let’s tackle them one at a time.
What about this feeling of a sense of communal sadness? Of getting deeply wrapped up in football fever? Is this our deal? No twinge of guilt for not spending all our time and energy cheering for — hmm — something Jewish?
Even I, an avowed Steeler loyalist could not help but get caught up in this most recent Seahawks fever. In the weeks building up to our Super Bowl game, you could feel a certain shared common sense of belonging, affinity, and collective bonding. Folks were wearing their blue and green, hanging 12th man flags on cars and homes. We might be strangers, but we were all on the same team!
It’s a phenomenon as ancient as time. A group of people rallying around a common cause, a shared enemy, all decked out in the same colors, adorned in fantastical face paint, nail polish and wild get-ups, speaking an inside language and belting out cheers along with lots of food and drink to lift the spirits. There it is adrenalin a-flow, talk of beating the opponent, civic pride, warrior worship and the triumph of physical strength and out-strategizing the opponent.
And all of this with no real enemy, no actual loss of life, and no threat to our being. It is a game! But oh my, how intense it can be and how caught up in it we all can get. We humans love this stuff, this stuff of Anthropology 101.
Enter the uber men, man-by-man, name-by-name, college-by-college. The national anthem is sung with heartfelt intensity, as if in this battle of gladiators all things we hold dear is at stake.
For what is all this pageantry? For profit. For financial benefit to the players, the owners, and to our city. Sorry to be a party pooper. All this fuss is all about a monetary boon to our town. But it’s fun! It’s nitty-gritty life: A coach, a team, a strategy! It’s also a more-than-welcome diversion from our day-to-day realities of life. It’s the kind of fun we folks have been making for as long as time. But when you really drill down to what is at stake here, it’s a lot of dollars. And, don’t be quick to pooh-pooh that! As foibles and fluctuations plague us nationally and globally, there’s nothing wrong with getting behind a robust healthy local economy. Game days bring lots of action into area businesses and buoy industries. So what’s not to like?
Well, don’t you kind of wish that we could fill a stadium full of people cheering on Torah scholars? Yes. Some folks standing in awe making noise over our “A” students? Might we want more dollars dispersed to social agencies and to folks in need? Oh boy, do we. A bit of enthusiasm around folks who huddle around trying to solve the world’s problems? Curing cancer? And fixing our threatening climate change? Sure we do. But don’t hold your breath. I don’t see a swap out for American football anytime soon.
So, let’s be inspired by the not-for-profit prophet Jeremiah, living in the time of the exile in Babylonia, 586 BCE. He urges the Jews who find themselves for the very first time on foreign land, to “seek the peace of the land wherein they live — for in their peace you will find your peace.” Though the Beast Mode is far from the battlefields of ancient times, the message is applicable: If it benefits the larger community, we as Jews must support the effort. Pass the wings. The 10th man meets the 12th man, if you get my drift!
Next? Time to second that emotion. Now that we are all caught up in the fray, how do we manage the concomitant mood swings and emotional roller coasters we’ve been riding? A “moshel berucho” is a person who “rules their emotions.” This is no small task. Our tradition espouses a single-minded idea of serving the Lord with joy, “Ivdu et Hashem besimcha,” which has generated a school of thought that leans towards a mandate of happiness. The Talmud lauds the state of happiness as necessary for prophecy, for Torah study, and puts forth optimism as sign of faith. The Hasidic masters struggle against melancholy, a state of mind understandable given the broken world we live in, saying that to give oneself over to sadness is an intolerable indulgence.
That said, we cannot expect a healthy personality to never feel sadness or to deny authentic feelings. Grief and despair are natural and expected around tragedy; disappointment and suffering and must be expressed. Indeed, Kohelet, Ecclesiastes, reminds us that there is a time for everything: A time for joy and a time for sadness. That said, the Judaism that I am most familiar with is one more of delight than depression.
When that sadness presents itself, we must patiently move toward resilience and perspective. We can feel our very real sadness and then try to cast our particular circumstance in the light of a healthy reality check and hopefully return to a core of a baseline inner joy.
What of a Super Bowl loss! It is natural to feel an immediate sense of disappointment; however, keep in mind: It’s better to have played and lost than to never have played at all. Perhaps too soon for some, given the swift and dramatic loss so fresh and so full of pathos, a pass so stealthily intercepted.
Perspective, folks! It’s a game. On to a particularly sporty question. Are kickoffs kosher? Are athletics apostasy? Is the gym for gentiles? Is there holiness in the huddle?
Remember Chanukah? The battle over Hellenism? The gymnasium and all that blood spilled over our cultural conflict? So, yes, at the time of the Greco-Syrian threat and later during the Roman takeover of Judea 70 CE and for a number of centuries Judaism looked askance at the work out, the sporting life and the emphasis on the body. We find the emphasis on exercise decried in the Book of the Maccabees, Josephus, and of course, the Talmud and Midrash. The focus on the body was seen as at odds with our focus on worship, study, piety and deeds of lovingkindness.
This slowly evolved to modernity when enter the 20th century phenomenon, starting already in Europe with Jewish sports leagues, then here in America with Jewish summer camps, YMHAs, JCCs, Maccabiahs, Zionism and the New Jew, day school competitive sports and American life — oh, and did I mention the Yankees? The pendulum has most assuredly swung.
We seem to be in the iteration of everything in moderation, in a time of the best of both worlds.
Which is really OK. Keeping our bodies fit, giving our youngsters opportunities to develop leadership, sportsmanship and athletic skills is important for confidence and growth. That together with a balance of schoolwork, Torah, and tradition, I think we’ve got a touchdown!
Rivy Poupko Kletenik is an internationally renowned educator and Head of School at the Seattle Hebrew Academy. If you have a question that’s been tickling your brain, send Rivy an e-mail at rivy.poupko.kletenik@gmail.com.