Bible Through Basketball?

When I thought about writing this, I thought, Adam, are you going insane? Then, my mind said "You're just being yourself." Tonight I felt God's presence through basketball. I learned about Shabbat, God, the Torah, my own faith, and of course how to play the game of basketball. It is a Friday night. Jewish families across the globe are lighting candles, blessing wine, and eating delicious challah. For the first time in the long time, my family was not one to enjoy the pleasure.

It is the playoffs. If we win this game, we advance to the finals. We lose, we go home with nothing. My team had a decent shot this year, but God does not appreciate the game being played on Shabbat. We lost that game. It was over for the team, but a new beginning for me.

The Torah hit me like a ton of bricks. Last week, God tells the Israelites the consequence of breaking the Sabbath laws. God proclaims, "Therefore, keep the Sabbath, for it is a sacred thing for you. Those who desecrate it shall be put to death, for whoever performs work on it, that soul will be cut off from the midst of its people" (Exodus 30:14). Literally, punishment of disobedience is death in this situation. With three minutes left, I the Torah and God spoke to me.

I had made up a blessing for basketball. It goes "Baruch atah Adonai, elohanu melech haolam, asher k'dishanu b'mitzvotav m'sahaek cadoor sal". That translate to "Blessed are you, Adonai our God, Ruler of the Universe, who sanctifies us with mitzvot to play basketball." Blessing are a give and take though. I had taken too much.

Today I was lazy. I did not plan to do this blog at a quarter of ten. School gave us the day off for a professional day and I did not bother to do any blog. I ignored Shabbat as the week came to a close. At dinner, no candles, no wine, no challah. The Sabbath is a sacred thing to me. I desecrated it and are part of me was put to death. I performed work on the Sabbath and cut myself off from all the other Jewish people. The Torah finally made sense.

Although the lesson was not pleasant to watch a good team fall hard, I am glad that I can now grow. Grow into a better, faithful, loyal Jew.