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Judaism can learn from what McGwire has done for baseball
JOSEPH AARON
Chicago Jewish News
Everything you need to know about Judaism you can learn from Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. Everything. What Judaism values, what Judaism is about, what Judaism needs. It's all there. We just have to look for it as we watch those balls fly out of the park.
Among my strongest and most cherished beliefs is that Jews can, must and should learn from everything and everyone. That there are messages in what we see before us. That's especially so if what we see captures the attention of many. That's especially so if what we see occurs at a time of the year when we should be especially taking note of things and applying them to our lives.
And so it's especially true of the home run derby that has been waged in recent weeks by McGwire - who this week broke the all-time single-season home run record - and Sosa.
Many have noted the various parallels between Judaism and baseball. The veneration of tradition, the rituals, the sense of community, the importance of food. But that's in a general sense. The McGwire/Sosa phenomenon provides more specific parallels, more pointed messages. For starters, both baseball and Judaism have been having a rough time of it lately. Free agency, absurd salaries, owner arrogance all systematically turned fans off. All that came together in the players' strike and the resultant cancellation of the World Series in 1994. The result: many fans were alienated and so cut their ties to the game.
So with Judaism, where organizational turf battles, lack of spiritual leadership, an obsession with fund-raising, communal rigidity and irrelevance all systematically turned Jews off. All that came together in the religious pluralism battles. The result: many Jews were alienated, came to feel disenfranchised.
And so, just as many baseball fans stopped going to games, stopped identifying with their team, so many Jews stopped affiliating, stopped identifying with their religion. The leaders of baseball, in what passes for their wisdom, at first tried all kinds of gimmicks to win the fans back, just as the leaders of Judaism, in what passes for their wisdom, trotted out "continuity" as the gimmick that would once again fill synagogues. Neither worked.
For gimmicks are just gimmicks. Baseball and Judaism are better than that. And simpler than that. As the mavens of baseball tried to figure out all kinds of ways to put the game back in the hearts of the fans, the real answer we now know would come from Mark and Sammy. For what they have done is remind us of what we loved about the game in the first place, showed us again the essence of the game, given us people to look up to, people who are the best and so inspire us to want to be our best. And to be part of it.
We've come back to baseball because Sammy and Mac have reminded us the game isn't about labor strikes but balls and strikes, isn't about big contracts and luxury skyboxes but about individuals striving to do their best.
Like baseball, Judaism has lost its way, doesn't seem able to connect with its members, especially its younger ones, who wonder why they should care, why it should mean anything to them, why they should put their effort into being better Jews when they're not quite sure if there is value in being Jewish at all. All of that is not the fault of Judaism, just as the alienation of fans was not the fault of baseball. Baseball remained a great game; it's just that that got obscured in all the junk that seemed to overtake it.
So with Judaism where our never-ending, all-important fund-raising, our inability to see the Holocaust in its proper context in Jewish life and Jewish history, our focus always on crises, our failure to see that we are living in a creative period of Jewish life and must make the most of it, has made many of us forget what Judaism is truly all about. The fight over pluralism, like the baseball strike, was the last straw for many of us, made us feel we weren't wanted, that the leaders didn't care about us, that they were ready to destroy what we hold sacred in order to score some points for their side.
Judaism, thus, has to do for those who feel alienated what Sammy and Mac have done for baseball. Remind them of what Judaism is really all about, remind them what's so great about it, restore that undefinable connection. Baseball, at its core, is what Judaism is at its core. Each person striving to do the best they can, to always improve, to work on themselves. And yet to do it in the context of a team, in the context of a community. Even the greatest player is nothing without his teammates. Even the greatest Jew needs to be part of a community to be most fully Jewish.
Sammy and Mac are great players. And are team players. And care most of all about the game. We all must strive to be the Mac and Sammy of Judaism, to not let those who "lead" the religion spoil what is so special about it.
The Mc-gwire-Sosa phenomenon also teaches us that we all need each other and that there must be room for all of us. The home run derby is a fascinating mix of tradition and modernity. It occurs in the context of our veneration of Babe Ruth, the greatest home run hitter ever, who we all will always revere, no matter how often his record is broken. He is the tradition of baseball, an essential, eternal reminder of what the game is all about.
Then there is Roger Maris, the transitional figure, the one who dared to challenge tradition, who seemed to want to rip the mantle from the great Babe, at least in the eyes of the fans at the time.
Mac and Sammy aren't a diminution of Babe but the reverse, the ones showing how great he was, how important he still is to the essence of the game. By doing what they're doing, they teach us that it is vital to maintain an allegiance to the Babe, to all that he was and all that he stands for. It's important to bring today's perspective to all that, that you best praise and keep the past alive by letting fresh air in, by welcoming all, by seeing new expressions not as besmirching tradition but enhancing it.
Together, Babe, Maris, McGwire and Sosa are the story of baseball, symbolize why it so captivates us, is so important to us. Together, Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Judaism are the story of Judaism. For it is only together that each can truly thrive, for each adds something absolutely essential.
Joseph Aaron is editor and publisher of Chicago Jewish News.
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