As regular readers of this blog are aware, the Monday post was usually devoted to sports with highlights and analysis of the Max Kellerman show which formerly aired on 1050 ESPN Radio. As Max has resigned from 1050 and has not yet resurfaced on the NY area radio waves, I have decided to continue the tradition of linking sports to Torah which I believe was an undercurrent of the Max Kellerman show.
Last Friday while I was driving in the car I heard a discussion on the Michael Kay show about the proper makeup of the Yankee playoff roster for the ALCS. Unlike many of the newspaper columnists and sports radio jocks, Michael Kay stated that he did not think that the Yankees should abandon their power roster and activate more speed players. [Ed note, they did anyway but the jury is still out since the series is only 2-1 in their favor]. Kay talked about how the Yankee game all year had been to win with power as they had hit a team record number of HRs in the regular season. He was unenthusiastic about the numerous suggestions to carry lighter hitting speedier players over sluggers. Point blank, he thought that the speed game was the Angels team strategy and that the Yankees should try to beat the Angels by being the Yankees, not another version of the Angels.
As I was listening to the show, I thought about a vort I had just heard the night before from Rabbi Frand, but had been unable to summarize due to time constraints. As usual, the world of sports had a link to Torah, but I just needed to save it until Monday.
Rabbi Frand (quoting the Paneach Razeh - a sefer I am unfamiliar with) commented on the seemingly odd sequence of the pesukim in Bereishis. In 4:1, the Torah states that Cain was born first and that Chava remarked upon Cain's birth that she had acquired a man with Hashem (Kanisi Ish Es Hashem). The next pasuk states that Abel was born, but then in listing their occupations, the Torah gives Abel's job as shepherd before Cain's of a farmer.
The Paneach Razeh commented that Chava did not want Cain to work at all, her intentions were for him to become an eved Hashem, much like the position that the bechor occupied in the midbar before the jobs was given to the Kohanim. Cain however saw that Abel had become a successful shepherd and as such he wanted a job too. Abel then found work as a farmer. However, since Abel found his employment first, the Torah listed the jobs in the order they were chosen.
Rabbi Frand then quoted a gemara in Berachos (one of the margilah b'pumah statements) - I am a man and my friend is a man. I work in the city and he works in the field. He gets up to go to work and I get up to go to work. Just as he does not try to do my job, I do not try to do his.
What can we learn from this pearl from Berachos? People need to understand that their abilities may cause them to be better suited for certain types of work and they should not be jealous of and try to perform someone else's job task they are not suited for. [It reminds of the old lawyer joke - if I knew math I would not have gone to law school].
This was Cain's major stumbling block - he was suited to be an eved Hashem, but desired to have an occupation like his brother. When he was unable to succeed in this endeavor and offered mediocre produce as a sacrifice to Hashem, he quickly learned that his brother's offering was superior, causing him to become even more jealous of Abel.
So should the Yankees have tried to be like the Angels or stay Yankees? We know Michael Kay's answer.
If you have seen this post being carried on another site such as JBlog, please feel free to click here to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!
No comments:
Post a Comment