Life in the Eyes of the World Cup

BH

World Cup fever. Have you got it? Well, in any event, whether you do or don't, fact is most of the world does. The FIFA World Cup is the largest sporting event in the world. We have dozens of nations with hundreds of millions of people crowding around TV sets to see professional athletes compete on the largest stage.

What it is specifically about this mega-event that draws so many can be a whole array of different things. It could be national pride, the world’s best soccer soccer (or “football”) players in one event, or the thrill of seeing a third world country at the center of the universe. Whatever it is, there is definitely a worldwide craze.

What is soccer? Simply put, it’s a game where a large, round object – the ball, moves rapidly toward the goal. Sure, that’s the simple explanation; however, the game is far from that simple. There are “roadblocks” in the formation of a defense. You must outplay the defense to get the ball to the goal.

How to outplay? Speed, knowledge of the game and complete awareness of your surroundings. Speed in the form of moving faster than your opponent, knowledge of where to put the ball and awareness of where your teammates and opponents find themselves at any given time.

Rabbi Yisroel Baal Shemtov, or more popularly known as the Baal ShemTov, taught his followers the importance of learning a lesson in the service of the G-d from everything we see and experience. What better time than to learn something from a phenomenon that has the entire world’s attention.

That in mind, let’s analyze what the game of soccer can teach. We must get the ball to the goal, that is the main point. Ball in goal equals point on board. It would be simple as pie to score these goals and tally the points if it weren’t for the opponent. The opponent has a mission as well: stop the ball from entering the gate, protected by its gatekeeper, and in turn, march downfield and deposit the ball in your goal. Hence, they keep you from hanging one on the board and in turn, tack one up for themselves.

Sure, the opponent gets in the way of your mission, but if there was no opponent, aside from the game becoming utterly pointless, the opportunity to display full potential would be gone.

So, what does this teach us regarding our own lives?

In life there are two teams, as stated in the Chassidic compilation, the Tanya and many other Chassidic texts published over the last several hundred years. Pardon the cliché, but those teams are the “good guys” and the “bad guys”. Our mission is to take our life – the metaphoric ball – and maneuver it toward the goal of the “good guys” while constantly sidestepping the “bad guys”.

The A team is that of Torah, Mitzvot and bettering the world. The B team is that of the enemy. The enemy in this case would be all that is unholy according to Torah and Hashem – G-d. Within each of us there reside both the positive and negative forces on the field. We have the Yetzer Tov, the good influence – that encourages us to study Torah, pray and do mitzvot. On the flip side, we have the Yetzer Hara, the evil inclination that will argue as strongly as it can against the good.

The Yetzer Hara is a talented goalkeeper, but the Yetzer Tov can always outsmart him!