Monday's Musings on Sports - Is Jason Kidd a Bilaam or a Korach?

Over the weekend a storm cloud appeared over Nets' Coach Jason Kidd's head. At first, there was a story about how the Nets had given Jason Kidd permission to speak to other teams about an opening in a higher position. But then as Sunday turned into Monday, the story evolved. No longer was the story about Jason Kidd having permission to look elsewhere. Instead, rumors began to circulate that Jason Kidd had been forced to look elsewhere after a failed power grab. The question was how and why.

For the uninitiated, here is a brief introduction to Jason Kidd and his meaning to the Nets. Prior to the 2001-2002 NBA season, Jason Kidd was traded to the nets. I can still recall listening to his first interview when he said that he expected that the Nets would win 50 games that season. I scoffed, but sure enough they won 52 games and went to the NBA finals. They would return to the finals in 2002-2003 and they slowly emerged from being the laughingstock of the East to a perennial playoff team.

However, even as the team was transitioning to respectability, there were issues surrounding Jason Kidd. After the two trips to the finals, the Nets started 2003-2004 slowly. There were rumors that the coach had lost control of the team. Forty two games into the season the Nets fired Byron Scott and promoted Lawrence Frank to head coach, a position that he had never held before. The same Nets team that was barely .500 under Scott would go on a 13 game winning streak after hiring Frank. And the legend of Jason Kidd "coach killer" grew.

Fast forward to the 2013-2014 season. The Nets hire the recently retired Jason Kidd as their head coach. A he had no prior head coaching experience, the Nets also hired Lawrence Frank as Jason Kidd's assistant coach and they make him the highest paid assistant coach in the league.  But three months into the season, he was demoted and removed from the bench, again because of clashes with Jason Kidd.

This would then bring us to the events of this past weekend. Stories began to percolate that Jason Kidd was either jealous of the contracts being given out to new coaches or that Kidd wanted more authority and the ability to make basketball personnel decisions. Regardless, the Nets brass said no and now, Kidd was forced to find another job.

The question I am pondering is whether Jason Kidd is a Korach or a Balak. Separated by Parshas Chukas, the two parshios contain stories of two men who aspired for...something. Korach was a levi who wanted power and he challenged Moshe after he saw that Moshe was the leader, Aharon was the Kohain Gadol and his older cousin was the Nasi of the tribe. Korach did not want for money and the challenge was not for financial gain. Things went badly for Korach and he was swallowed up by the earth for challenging Moshe.

Two parshios later, we read about Bilaam. Bilaam was a prophet whose powers rivaled Moshe. Bilaam had been an advisor to Pharaoh in Egypt and later commanded the capitol of Kush after he outsmarted its king. After being pad handsomely by Balak the King of Moab to curse the Jews, Bilaam was talked out of his plan by his donkey. In the end his curse became a blessing to the Jews.

In looking at the two personalities, I am still on the fence as to who I would identify Jason Kidd with. He definitely had the Korach aspect as he was jealous and wanted power. Still, the question of his motivation takes me somewhat out of the Korach category, since money also seemed to be part of Jason Kidd's motivation. 

I guess you can say that he had a little bit of both...

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Sunday Night Suds - Leinenkugel Lemon Berry Shandy

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Leienkugel's Lemon Berry Shandy.

Yes, its that time of year again. The time of year when Mrs KB takes off for Camp M update, the time of year when the blog goes dark for close to a week as we relocate and wait for Frontier (the world's worst telecom company) to activate our internet and last and most certainly least, the time of year when beer companies take leave of their senses and attempt to blend lemonade and beer in the time honored Radler tradition.

Regular readers of this blog are no doubt aware that I am not a fan of the shandy style of beer. Prior failure to finish bottles of shandy included the Saranac Shandy (reviewed here kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2012/06/sunday-night-suds-saranac-shandy.html); Leinenkugel Summer Shandy (reviewed here kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2012/06/sunday-night-suds-leinenkugel-summer.html) and Samuel Adams Porch Rocker (reviewed here kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2013/06/sunday-night-suds-samuel-adams-porch.html). In fact, the only Shandy I have ever tolerated was the Leinenkugel Orange Shandy (reviewed here kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2013/09/sunday-night-suds-leinenkugel-orange.html) which tasted OK because it was orange added to wheat beer, rather than a lemonade and beer concoction.

This brings us to the Leinenkugel Lemon Berry Shandy which was a new personal low. I drank exactly three sips before donating the beer in the name of sanity. The beer tasted like a cross between moisturizer and ammonia. (Mrs KB also detected some dish washing detergent, which was not odd, even though we were drinking from plastic cups). The first sip was all hand creme - a sweet potpourri of scents you would expect in a basket found in the bathroom. Successive sips added an astringent ammonia  flavor and finally I decided to use the beer for its intended purpose - cleaning the bowl in the bathroom.

I would not recommend sharing this beer with anyone. No, I am serious, not even THAT guy should have to endure a bottle of the Lemon Berry Shandy.

Leinenkugel Lemon Berry Shandy is certified kosher by the Orthodox Union, and has an OU on the label. To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about Leinenkugel Lemon Berry Shandy, please follow this link beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/710/84046. 

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver. If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Sunday Night Suds - Uinta Bristlecone Brown Ale

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Uinta Bristlecone Brown Ale.

I know the question must be keeping you up nights. What exactly is a Bristlecone and where have I seen it before? The bottle label states that the Bristlecone is the oldest living organism, but that just made me want to double check that there is an OU on the bottle (rest assured, there is). 

Upon perusing the Uinta website, I learned that the Bristlecone is actually a form of pine tree. The website states that there is a 4,765 year old Great Basin Bristlecone pine tree named Metsulah whose location is kept hidden. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the website, but if they are correct, the tree would have been planted/began growing right after the Flood, so it would make sense that Noach named the tree for his grandfather.

Besides having an interesting name, the Uinta Bristlecone Brown Ale has an interesting flavor profile which makes it very drinkable. There is quite a bit of malt and a richness that makes me think of a stout, but without the heavy aftertaste. There are some nutty accents to the beer as well and I could see pairing this with Kung Pao Chicken (extra spicy, of course!).

Uinta Bristlecone Brown Ale is certified kosher by the Orthodox Union and bears an OU on the label. For the experts' take on the Uinta Bristlecone Brown Ale please click here www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1416/14190. 

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver. If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable). 

Finally, if you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Korach

The following is a brief summary of some of the thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce these vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

R' Frand began his vort with a paraphrase of the preface to a tale of two cities "It was the best of women, it was the worst of women."

The gemara in Sanhedrin and related medrash says that a smart woman builds her house and the foolish woman destroys her house. The smart woman was the wife of On Ben Peles, the foolish woman is the wife of Korach.

The medrash explains that when Korach came home from the ceremony of dedication of the Levi'im, he was shaved from head to toe. Korach's wife said - what happened to you? Korach responded that Moshe did this to me. Korach's wife asked - are you crazy? Korach responded that Moshe even did this to his own children.

The medrash continues with Korach's wife asking what else did Moshe do? Korach responded that Moshe picked him up and waved him. Korach's wife again said - are you a fool? He answered that Moshe did this to everyone else.

The wife again approached Korach and asked - what did you learn. Korach responded, we learned the laws of tzizis. Korach's wife said - how foolish is this - what happens to a garment that is all techeles, does it need tzizis? 

In so doing, Korach's wife sowed the seeds for her husband's destruction and motivated and goaded him into rebelling against Moshe.

The gemara explains that On's wife was the smart one who built her house as she saved her husband. She asked - why are you getting involved in this fight? Regardless of whether Moshe or Korach win, you will still be On and you will not be a Kohain!

On responded to his wife - but what can I do? I have already committed to going with him! 

On's wife then said to him - I will take care of this. She got On drunk and he fell asleep. Thereafter, she went and sat at the entrance to their tent and uncovered her hair. When Korach and his group saw that her hair was uncovered they ran the other way. Thus On was saved from the punishment meted out to Korach and his followers.

R' Frand said two thoughts related to these stories. The first was an observation that these people were creating conflict with Moshe. The gemara teaches that one who argues with his teacher is like he rejects Hashem. 

R' Frand asked - are these frum people? Obviously not if they are fighting with Moshe. So why did they run the other way when they saw On's wife had her hair uncovered?

R' Frand then approached the thought from another angle. These people were very frum because they did not want to see a married woman's hair. But they had no problem starting trouble for others, because they enjoyed stirring up trouble.

R' Frand observed that we have these problems still to this very day. There are people who are very religious, but they have no problem with publicly arguing with their Rabbi and airing their disputes with their shul in public.

R' Frand closed his vort with thoughts on disputes, but I would like to add a different dimension to this blog post. 

Today, I attended the funeral of a friend of my 14 year old daughter. The girl who passed away was hit by a car yesterday. She was pronounced dead at the hospital within an hour of the accident. 

The community was in shock. I came home that night to find Mrs KB and my older two daughters crying and saying tehillim.

When the funeral began, various Rabbanim from the community said tehillim and then the eulogies began. The first speaker was the mother of the girl. There were no dry eyes when she spoke and she was very emotional about the loss of her only daughter. But her reaction absolutely blew me away.

In between grieving and crying and reliving her daughter's short life, the mother talked about her daughter's disposition and how she never said unkind words about other children. The mother made several nedarim during the eulogy that she would never speak lashon hara and would dedicate herself to watching her speech, in honor and memory of her daughter.

I sat there listening, almost incredulously as this mother who had just lost her oldest child, talked about things that she would do to honor her daughter's memory. Although the girl had passed away less than twenty-four hours before, the mother, in between tears, was able to take positive steps and inspire the hundreds of people gathered there.

There could be no greater example of a wise woman who (re)built her house.

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Sunday Night Suds - Samuel Adams Rebel IPA

This week's Sunday Night Suds toast dads everywhere with Samuel Adams Rebel IPA and wishes them all a Hoppy Father's Day.

I thought that I had seen it all. Kids came home from school with bookmarks which were made to look like ties. There were pen and pencil holders made from classroom objects. Of course there were cards galore. But this year, Tali (my youngest daughter) was very creative and made me a beer bottle label for Father's Day. I am not sure that she intended to be punny, but it seems from the label that she wanted this year's Father's Day to be filled with hops. So with this kind of prompting, how could I not review one of Samuel Adams newest IPA, the West Coast Style Rebel IPA.

As an introduction, I can't tell you that I have any clue what makes this beer a "rebel". The Rebel IPA bills itself as "brewed for the revolution", but there is no information on their website or the bottle to explain which revolution they are referring to. Since its "West Coast Style" they can't mean the american revolution. I also don't think they are referring to the industrial revolution, as that did not have its roots out west either. 

While I cannot offer insight as to what makes this beer a "rebel", I can tell you with all certainty that it is an IPA. The first drink was all pine and the florals quickly picked up with each sip. The beer pours a dark copper and holds its foam longer than many other Sam Adams products. Each successive sip brought citrus and bite and the beer easily rivals Sam Adams' premiere IPA, the Latitude 48 IPA.

The Samuel Adams Rebel IPA is under the Kosher Supervision of the Star-K and has a Star-K certification mark on the label. To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about this brew, please follow this link - beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35/95386. 

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver. If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable). 

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Shelach

The following is a brief summary of some of the thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce these vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

R' Frand started his vort by quoting a gemara in Sotah which Rashi in the parsha recounts. The gemara states that the spies died in a "mageifa" or abnormal death plague. When the spies died, their tongues became elongated and went all the way down to their navels. Then worms started crawling up and down the tongues. Rashi concludes that this death was middah k'neged middah. 

Why was this middah k'neged middah? The simple answer is that since they used their tongues to speak evil about Israel, they were punished with their tongues. However, the deeper question is, why did their tongues need to be elongated? Couldn't their tongues just have fallen out?

R' Frand answered the question by quoting the Tolner Rebbi who observed that the language of pesukim which describe the spies can give insight into the reason for this punishment.

The first pasuk  describing the spies is found in Bamidbar 13:26 wherein the Torah states that the spies came back and spoke to Moshe and Aharon and the entire Jewish people. The pasuk uses the term "Vayashivu osam davar" which is translated as they "brought back the report to them."

However, in the following pasuk (13:27) it states "Vayisapru Lo" which is translated as "they reported to him."

R' Frand asked in the name of the Tolner Rebbi, who in turn quoted the Ohr Hachaim HaKadosh who asked - what happened to everyone else? Why do they start by addressing Moshe, Aharon and everyone and then afterwards speak only to Moshe? And why does the pasuk go from Vayashivu to Vayisapru?

Lastly, R' Frand noted that when Moshe recounts the story of the spies in Sefer Devarim he does not seem to be critical of them. But why?

R' Frand answered by explaining that Vayashivu means that the speaker just reported the facts. No opinion or elaboration was given or needed - just what was observed. However, the use of Vayisapru means that a story was told. 

The Ramban explains that this is why the meraglim were punished. Moshe asked a question about the land and they responded with facts about the land and gave details. All of this was true and they did what they were told. The description of the people and cities were all correct. But the spies' sin was saying in 13:27, "Efes Ki Az Ha'am" - meaning - "everything we said until now was false." This was not for them to say.

The direct conversation with Moshe also shows their plot. The spies came and whispered in Moshe's ears, but to the eyes of the nation. The Sefer Arvei Nachal explains that they whispered to Moshe so that people would come and ask - what did you tell Moshe? Then they could tell a story and rope everyone in.

So why were their tongues elongated? Because the spies spoke too much - they added editorial comment, rather than speaking just of the facts. So their tongues were elongated because they spoke too much.

The gemara in Erchin discusses lashon hara. Each thought about lashon hara begins with the statement that someone is "mesaper" - tells lashon hara. Why does the gemara not say "medaber" or speaks lashon hara? Because just repeating the facts is not the same as enticing and drawing the listener in by adding editorial comment.

We know that the mitzva to teach the seder at the table is sipur yitziyas mitzraim. If a person wanted to have a seder and say "Hashem took us out of Egypt, let's eat", he would not fulfill the obligation as he has not told the story in a way that is interesting and brings in the listener. However, when a person tells lashon hara, he uses his power of speech negatively to rope people in by elongating the story. This is why the meraglim were punished in the way that they were.

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Sunday Night Suds - Samuel Adams Cold Snap

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Samuel Adams Cold Snap.

As Mrs KB says, after a warm day out in the sun, everyone could use a Cold Snap. Although this may be wishful thinking, there still are some bottles of this seasonal brew, so at least you can chill one (or six) and try to think cold.

The Cold Snap is an unfiltered white ale which is brewed with spices (as most are). The website indicates that the spices added to the brew process include coriander, orange peel and plum. 

The beer pours a very dark gold and has nice carbonation with some foam. There is a strong, rich fruit flavor which may be the plum and is quite pleasant. The beer should not be confused with a lambic or other fruit infused beer as it is not overly sweet. Instead, the spices work with the complex fruit notes to create a beer that has a slight resemblance to a barley wine in its flavor profile.

I would recommend pairing this beer with sweet poultry dishes or mellow sweet tomato based beef soups or stews.

The Samuel Adams Cold Snap is under the Kosher Supervision of the Star-K and has a Star-K certification mark on the label. To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about this brew, please follow this link - beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/35/109458. 

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver. If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable). 

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Monday's Musings on Sports - The Hockey Playoff Edition

With the Stanley Cup Final match-up finally set, the pundits are already writing off the Rangers' chances of success in winning the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1994. Among the reasons being floated are that the Rangers success was buoyed by the team's rallying around Marty St. Louis after the death of his mother. Some in the media have seen this as a "gimmick", but that is just a cop-out because the writer is too embarrassed to admit that he picked the wrong team to move on in the NHL playoffs.

I am no psychologist, nor do I play one on TV, but I strongly subscribe to the concept that a group of players will rally around a teammate they genuinely like when he experiences personal tragedy. In the case of the Rangers, the rallying around a teammate who experienced loss did not begin with the sudden death of France St. Louis. Indeed, the seeds for the team's bonding began when Dominic Moore rejoined the Rangers after taking a year off to bury and mourn for the loss of his wife who succumbed to cancer in January 2013. The team supported him and even made group donations to the Katie Moore Foundation.

Six months later, the team found itself on the precipice of falling out of the playoff, down three games to one to the heavily favored Pittsburgh Penguins. Then news broke that Marty St. Louis' mother had died suddenly and the team faced the spectre of having to play an elimination game against Pittsburgh without a well respected veteran who had joined the team and provided a stabilizing influence at the end of the season. When the team showed up for game five, they were shocked to see Marty in the locker room and the team came out and played their strongest game of the playoffs. And then the next game was played two days later on Mothers' Day and Marty scored the first goal. Whether or not hollywood could have scripted it better I cannot say. But the team could not have a had better motivating factor, because everyone has a mother and people can relate to wanting to do things to honor her memory.

The issue reminded me of a story that I heard from Rabbi Zev Cohen of Adas Yeshurun when I was in Chicago over Pesach. The story involved R' Meir Shapiro, the formulator of the daf yomi cycle. As related by R' Cohen, soon after the Rosh Hashanah when the first daf yomi cycle began, R' Shapiro received a letter from his sister. She wrote that she had a dream the first night of Rosh Hashanah that their mother was being honored in shamayim and was wearing a crown. The obvious correlation that the sister drew was that because R' Shapiro had initiated the daf yomi cycle that Rosh Hashanah, whereby many people would become a system of learning gemara, their mother was being honored for his actions.

However, R' Cohen explained that there was more to the story. When R' Shapiro was a seven year old boy, his mother hired a tutor to come and learn with him because he was so far ahead of his classmates. 

One day, his family moved from one city to another and his mother arranged to have a new tutor come to their house in the new city on the day that they arrived. After unpacking, the mother sat with young R' Meir waiting for the tutor. As the hours wore on R' Shapiro's mother broke down and started crying. When he asked her why she was crying, she explained - "it's a day without Torah, its a day without learning."

It was this lesson which R' Cohen believed was the motivation for R' Shapiro to begin the daf yomi program so that no day would be without Torah. Is it any wonder that his mother was honored in shamayim because she had inspired her son to create a daily learning program?

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Sunday Night Suds - Flying Bison Buffalo IPA

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Flying Bison Buffalo IPA.

Flying Bison Buffalo IPA is another one of those beers that you need to be in the right place to purchase. Although the brand is brewed in the FX Matt plant in Utica, it is only sold in select counties in Western New York and it is not part of the regular line of Saranac products which are widely distributed in the Northeast.

The Flying Bison Buffalo IPA poured a rich copper color and had a decent amount of foam which stayed on the glass long after the pour. The first taste was all floral hops, followed by some pine and a little citrus. 

Although I enjoyed this beer on its own, I could easily see pairing this this beer with char grilled poultry or other non-sauced bbq fare.

This beer has all the makings of a great IPA and it had me wishing I had purchased more bottles of this brew. Maybe next time that I am upstate this summer I can go looking for more...

Flying Bison Buffalo IPA is certified kosher under the Va'ad of Detroit and their is a kosher symbol on the side of the bottle.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about the Flying Bison Buffalo IPA, please follow this link www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/702/79374.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!