You never know where a Devar Torah will come from. Several weeks ago I was reading my copy of Sports Illustrated when I came across the story of a Christian Pastor preparing a basketball team for a difficult matchup during the team’s Bible study.
They were down three games to one in a playoff series and endangered of being eliminated with one more loss. Their Pastor, who happens to also be one of the players on the team, James Michael McAdoo, described a situation in this week’s Torah portion, Shelach, where the 12 Israelite spies scouted out the land of Canaan in preparation for a conquest of the land. McAdoo told the team, “when 12 came back , 10 were like, ‘Yo, the people there are huge. They have big armies. We can’t possibly take this land.’ But two believed they could do it.” He went on, “I told our guys, ‘We have to be the ones who believe we can take this land.”
McAdoo’s team, the Golden State Warriors, went on to defeat the Oklahoma City Thunder, only to lose to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the final. But, his point resonated with me. Impossible things are possible if you only believe they are. This is the reason God gets so angry at the 10 spies who come back with a negative report, describing the nations living in Canaan as giant like, and we like grasshoppers in their eyes. They killed the morale and made moving forward impossible. We, humans, must have a little chutzpah, even if we won’t always succeed. Because if we don’t we won’t even try. On the Shabbat before our nation celebrates Independence Day, let’s take courage in people who proceeded ahead even when the odds were against them. Indeed, our country and our people depend on such individuals.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex
p.s. – a big welcome to Cantor Arlene Frank. I hope you will come out tonight to support her on her first service at Shir Shalom.
Last Updated on 07/22/2016 by Marc Slonim