Go for the Gold

February 22, 2002 Rabbi Gary S. Creditor   Let me begin by saying that I pay little attention to the Olympics, winter or summer. I don't recognize most the sports they play. I don't know how to keep score. I don't know the players. The last time I paid any attention was Lake Placid, whatever year that was, and because of the US men's hockey team. Having followed the Rangers and Islanders, that is a sport I understand. I do know that they play for gold, silver and bronze medals. You might entitle these remarks as:Go for the Gold. Let me begin again, this time from an entire different angle. The Book of the Torah, Exodus, which we are currently reading is filled with very diverse subjects. It begins with the history of the Israelites in slavery in Egypt, continues with their redemption and salvation at Yam Suf. The Israelites then come to Mt. Sinai for the revelation from God and the Ten Commandments. Then it has a whole parasha about civil and criminal law, as different from religious law of holidays and sacrifices. Then, for four out of five Torah portions, almost exclusively turns its attention to the building of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, which is the precursor to the Temple, which stood in Jerusalem, which is the ancestor of the synagogue in which we pray and congregate. In the middle of the sedras concerning the Mishkan is the Chait shel Agel HaZahav, The Sin of the Golden Calf. If you read the Torah for our history, it is seems disjointed. If you read it for law, they are mixed and separated among the books. And if read it for architecture, then why break it up with the Golden Calf? And, you need a lot of imagination to fill in the missing details. I would like to connect the dots. I believe that there is a straight, unbroken line that runs between the story of salvation to the laws of Mt. Sinai to civil laws to the gold used to build the tabernacle and was misused to build the Golden Calf and then to the Olympic Games. [As an aside it is important to remember that the Olympics were created in Greece by the 700's B.C.E. They were only open to Greeks, and not to everybody. Women were not permitted to participate norattend. It is important to note that before the Games began, the competitors, trainers and the judges swore a solemn oath to keep the competition clean and fair and to give just decisions.] What is unique about our history from slavery to freedom, and that we read it yearly and recite it as our ancient saga at the seder table, five weeks from now? The answer is that no other people has as their national saga, at the genesis of their existence, a story about their degradation, that they were vulnerable. Every other national epic talks about their courage and bravery. Ours says: we were weak, we were vulnerable, and so God had to save us. From this, others have extrapolated our tale, a tale of the vulnerable, as their own. There is embedded in the account the belief: God protects and demands justice for the vulnerable. To connect the dots: This protection is enshrined in the Ten Commandments. The prologue, the first commandment declares that God issues these laws. It is not up to us, whether we like these laws. They are Divine. How does God want the vulnerable protected? Don't steal. Don't bear false witness. Don't covet. These are commandments eight, nine and ten. We might say that these are "civil matters." For Judaism, again, a chiddush, a revolution to its world, and maybe to ours: justice, honesty and fairness in all realms is God's concern too. Perhaps that is why the Torah follows the Torah portion of Yitro, of the Ten Commandments, with that of Mishpatim, laws. It is to teach us that you cannot separate morals and ethics from Divine sanction. Western law has been a history of the separation of divine commandment from man's reason, from logic. If it is logical to be good, then I'll be good. If reason compels me to tell the truth, then I will tell the truth. Man is the center of right and wrong. The connection of Mishpatim and the Ten Commandments and their content is that we live a moral life, with honesty, truth and justice,even if we don't like it. We live correctly, with holiness and honesty, truth and justice, because God wants us to. The nexus for the right and wrong is higher than us and not subject to our dismissal or reversal. This is illustrated in the use of gold in the sedras concerning the Tabernacle and the Golden Calf. One was right and one was wrong. Each used gold. In each, gold had to be melted, smelted and shaped. The difference is that when it was used in purity, in holiness and sanctity, it was used to worship God. In closing the circle, God's approbation requires us to the protect the vulnerable with truth and honesty. When the gold was desecrated, used in a sacrilegeous way, to worship a calf, it became idolatrous. In that situation, dishonesty, lying, coveting and theft operate, and the vulnerable are exposed to exploitation. We are all vulnerable, in one way or another. Whether we are adult or child, we are vulnerable to the manipulation of the truth, to the jealousies of others, to lying and theft. Perhaps the circumstances of the Olympics and the scandal surrounding the medals for ice skating is perfect illustration, and closes the circle. The goal of the games is to go for the gold. If pursued in truth, that the competitors push themselves through rigorous training to do their utmost and thus exceed the utmost of the others, and the judges score and judge fairly and honestly, then the medal has been properly and truthfully earned. This is a great accomplishment. At least the ice skating competition has been marred, and in religious terms, desecrated. The competitors have been vulnerable. Their deserved gains have been stolen because the gold they would wear around the neck has been coveted. And the judge has born false witness. So the integrity of the games has been defiled and violated. The French judge at first admitted wrong doing, now has recanted, and has ruined and tainted the whole enterprise. The gold of national honor has become an idol instead of appreciating the gold inside the devotion and dedication of every athlete. The circle has been completed. I don't know how many here are really concerned about the Olympic games and all the shenanigans that go on. It will probably recede from our notice and the details only surface on some trivia game like "Weakest Link." Yet the lessons are immutable. We do the right- honesty, truth, justice, because it is a Divine Command. Even something good can be distorted and despoiled. Not only athletes are vulnerable to fickle or dishonest judges: We are all vulnerable, often and inescapably. Therefore our faith teaches us highest values to implement in our daily lives. No part of our lives should lose their holiness and we shouldn't lose our integrity. May we never worship the gold of the calf. When Go for the Gold, may it be the gold within us.