Rabbi's Week in Review Blog

Every so often, I feel the need (or force myself) to step out from the tsuris in the world — the grievance, anger, fear and cynicism — to grab on to something positive. Sometimes that may mean looking the other way when an event that brings me joy may, behind the scenes, come with some dubious conduct.

As a caveat, on Tuesday this week we observe what is arguably the saddest day on the Jewish calendar — Tisha B’Av. So let this be a pick-me-up for afterward.

With that qualifier in mind, I was hooked on and thoroughly enjoyed the Olympics these past couple of weeks. From the opening ceremony through (most of) the closing ceremony, I was checking in regularly with the latest results — the big sports like basketball and some of the lesser recognized sports. I love that sports like swimming and gymnastics seem to have gained celebrity interest. I like the fact that U.S. athletes and teams that have utterly dominated in the past still won (I still cheer for the old USA), but I also think it is great that the rest of the world is catching up, that winning gold is not a fait accompli.

However, it is one event — or really occurrence within that event — that stood out for me. The gold-medal match in women's beach volleyball (which for those uninitiated is a two-on-two competition) between Canada and Brazil. There is no physical contact between competing teams, so the likelihood of any kind of altercation is pretty limited; in other words, it ain't hockey. 

Yet, at one point in the match, words were exchanged between one of the Canadian players and one of the Brazilian players. Both players approached each other from their respective sides of the net, and the other two players joined in, the conversation getting more animated, ultimately causing the referee to step in to get the players to separate, with the two more animated players receiving yellow cards. I thought up to that point that yellow cards were assessed only for more egregious physical fouls in soccer.

All of this mayhem culminated in the public-address announcer playing the most peace-loving song in his playlist, John Lennon’s “Imagine.” All of the fans began to sing along, which in turn caused the players to break out into wide grins, something you never see amidst the tension and stress of a gold-medal match. 

This was a tonic for me, a needed break from the world’s angst and a couple of really annoying emails I received last week. I cannot identify, with any specificity, the sweet spot between the need to engage with and act to address the violence, conflict and injustice infecting our world and the need for joy in our lives. The Olympics this year, more than I can ever remember, gave me a sense that now was a good time for the joy and the respite that sports has always provided for me.