The Sermon I Won’t be Giving This Shabbat

The Sermon I Won’t be Giving This Shabbat, But Wish I Was --

On Mishpatim, the NFL, “Concussion,” CTE, and Responsibility

Rabbi Steve Weisman – Temple Solel – Bowie MD – Feb. 5, 2016

To make perfectly clear – the reason I am not giving this sermon this Shabbat is NOT because I find it in any way inappropriate.  It is merely because I am not schedule to preach this evening at all.  To the contrary, I believe it IS worth preaching, which is why I wrote it anyway, so I could post it on my blog, and spread the message this way.  As a result, knowing I am not bound by time restrictions, it is a little longer than usual.  But the silence on these issues has also gone on far longer than it should have.  So….

Frame 1 – Setting the scene of Torah -- Last Shabbat, we all stood at the base of Mt. Sinai, and experienced God’s presence, as we heard the Ten Commandments spoken to us from on high.  Now, this Shabbat, in parshat Mishpatim, Moses is up on the mountain, and God is filling his head with lots of other ethical/legal statutes.  Most of these fall under the category that modern lawyers refer to as “tort law,” issues of responsibility and recompense for injuries or property loss suffered by one party by the actions or inactions of another.

Among the best known material in this portion are two bits.  The first, is the so-called lex talionis – the “law of retribution,” known better as “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.…”  The second, is a sequence of differentiated responses when a pregnant woman is injured accidentally by two men quarrelling with each other, which frequently serve as one of the foundation points for a Jewish “pro-choice” position on abortion rights.  All this Shabbat’s material – large or small, well known or not – combine to strengthen the ethical underpinnings upon which the Jewish community is supposed to operate in our dealings with each other and with our neighbors.

Frame 2 – Setting the Cultural Scene for the Weekend – For those who may not have been aware (LOL), this Sunday is the Super Bowl ™.  Oh, sorry, I am not allowed to refer to it as such in public, because I do not have the proper licensing from the NFL to use their trademarked name.  I should have said this Sunday is “the big championship professional football game.”  This is not merely a football game – this is a football game on a scale of a major game of what the rest of the world calls “football.”  People have seriously suggested, for some time now, that the scope of interest in this game is so large, that the Monday after should be a national holiday, so we have a day off to recover.  The two days of the year when Americans, as a whole, overeat the most, are Thanksgiving and the day of the “Big Game.”  And, with some fanfare this year, the ugly truth has emerged that the site of this game, each year, becomes one of the year’s biggest locations for human trafficking and prostitution activities.  So many reasons for national pride here – NOT!  And don’t even get me started on the unresolved issue of the trademarked name and mascot of the local team!

Frame 3 – Beginning to Raise the Issues with the Game Itself -- American professional football, right now, is a flawed product – far beyond the obscene drain on productivity caused by games, especially this Sunday’s, and the equally obscene advertising rates charged for air time before, during, and right after the “big game.”  It has become a televised spectacle, which uses instant replay to correct calls potentially made in error by part-time, untrained officials, who, as if that weren’t bad enough, after the first round of the playoffs, are put together as a team only for one game (albeit, a team of officials allegedly made up of those who rated the best during the regular season at their particular sub-specialty of officiating), with no practical opportunity to adjust to working together.

Under a claim of wanting to “get the calls right” to justify the microscopic critique of human calls made in real time, the NFL further damages its own product by creating a farce of a system for utilizing the replay technology, designed more to entertain viewers than get calls right, or provide fairness in the outcome of the game.  And, as a direct result of replay usage, the league has micro-defined certain elements of the game, such as what constitutes catching a pass, within an inch of their lives, far beyond either fan or player common sense recognition, and almost to a level of making the game impossible for referees to control in real time.

Rather than fixing the problems on the field of play, the league’s officials are also now overreacting, after years of willful ignorance, to inappropriate off-field player behavior.  In short, whether it is actually true or not, the average American AND the more involved true fan often believe that the league’s leadership is interested in profits and ratings first, good publicity second, making an entertaining show third, the integrity of the game on the field only fourth, and the health and safety of the players who make all of the above possible, last.

Frame 4 – Identifying the Real Issues -- And yet, like rats on crack, we Americans, many of whom have no interest in football on any other day of the year, will get together with friends, overeat, wager on the game, argue over the quality of the commercials, critique the quality of the halftime act, and generally turn the day into America’s version of the “bread and circuses” that symbolized the decline and fall of the Roman Empire under the weight of its own ethical lapses.  Even in this year in which the movie “Concussion” should have, once and for all, moved the NFL’s blatant disregard for the lives and safety of its players into the limelight!  Even this week, when the tragi-comedy that the life of former Heisman Trophy winner, now NFL failure, Johnny Manziel has moved from the football field to the point where his agent has dumped him and his father publicly fears for his long-term survival if he does not get himself help to deal with his issues.  Yet the NFL rules for not overshadowing “The Big Game” prohibit his team from releasing him until after the Game.  Even this week, when, despite the mountain of evidence against the league, their alleged leader, Commissioner Roger Goodell, who has never met a television camera he didn’t love, or a story he couldn’t spin to ignore the pack of elephants on the playing field, once again got up, and turned his “State of the Game” message into a glowing denial, in which everything is right with the game, a poor rip-off of the riot scene from the end of “Animal House,” in which an overmatched Kevin Bacon screams to the onrushing crowd “Remain calm, all is good,” just before being trampled by them into the ground.

Long before the biggest scandal connected to the movie “Concussion” was the failure of the Hollywood elite to extend a Best Actor nomination, richly deserved, to Will Smith for his portrayal of the African-born doctor who first identified the condition now called “chronic traumatic encephalopathy,” or CTE, and its role in early onset dementia, and an overly large number of other health problems and mental illness manifestations that have killed more than a few high profile football players prematurely, this movie should have made Americans sit up and take notice of what has been happening in professional and amateur football for too many years without appropriate response.  Sadly, the Oscar-related controversy seems to have derailed the REAL scandal of this movie – the true story it told of cover-up, willful denial and negligence on the part of billionaire owners and their minions in the league office, afraid to risk their profits, even for the sake of player safety and survival in the face of undeniable evidence.

The movie explains, in layman’s terms, the frightening long-term impact of multiple concussions, but even worse, the damage done by “the compilation of sub-concussive hits over time.”  It focuses on the very real, high-profile cases of the first few players to be confirmed with the condition.  The problem is, CTE can only be positively diagnosed in an autopsy, after the victim has already died, as was the case again this week with the announcement that Ken Stabler, former quarterback of the Oakland Raiders, who died a few months ago from cancer, also suffered from an extremely advanced form of CTE.

I remember sitting in the theater, sitting with both my kids, and my daughter’s boyfriend, a young man who is actually an (off-field) employee of a professional football franchise, watching “Concussion,” and who left the theater as disturbed with the dissonance between his lifelong love of the game and the reality portrayed so clearly on the screen as I was.  For me, hearing the descriptions of the damage, and the behaviors the condition could cause, reminded me that this was NOT the first time I had learned of this condition through pop culture sources.  So I went and looked it up.

Sure enough, in December of 2011, during their 13^th season, Law and Order:  Special Victims Unit did an episode called “Spiralling Down.”  The guest star was Treat Williams, playing a popular retired NFL quarterback accused of a crime against a woman.  As the case plays out, it becomes clear that he is no longer always in control of his behaviors, and showing signs of advanced dementia as well, which may have resulted in his alleged attack happening without his awareness or control.

This was SVU taking on the headlines that went with the original public disclosure of CTE, and creating a case.  I remember watching the episode, thinking that Williams was playing a character based on Joe Namath.  In truth, the character’s name was Jake Stanton, which, in retrospect, and influenced by this week’s news about Ken Stabler, makes me believe the character was written based on Stabler, but played like Namath.

Frame 5 – The Bottom Line – A big part of the drama in the true-life story of “Concussion” was the sad truth that the “powers that be” that control professional football at first refused to admit that CTE was an actual condition, then claimed that it wasn’t a real problem.  Only when the evidence started to mount, were they forced to admit the truth.  But, at that point, rather than take responsibility, and work to improve conditions and save lives, they opted instead to simply control the spin on the issue.  I cringed hearing “Commissioner Goodell claim this week, with a straight face, that the league has made substantive changes to improve player safety.  Sure, more concussions were reported, and more players forced to sit if concussions were either suspected in game, or confirmed.  Perhaps some equipment has been improved.  Rules have been tinkered with off the field.  But, enforcement on the field is, at best, inconsistent.  Several high profile cases occurred this year in which players who should have been prevented from returning to play were not.  Rules “refinements” on the definition of a catch in the end zone for a touchdown now almost beg a defensive back, in a last ditch effort to prevent a score, to attempt to separate a receiver from the ball by separating him from his senses unnecessarily. 

In one particularly galling and egregious incident, the outcome of a playoff game turned when a runner was illegally hit and knocked out on the field, and in the process, quite understandably, lost control of the football before hitting the ground.  Not only did the officials fail to penalize the illegal hit that knocked out the runner, as they are supposed to do, but after also failing to note the fumble, the rules allowed the team that committed the felonious assault to challenge the ruling on the field.  The rules further prohibited the officials from acting to correct their failure to penalize the guilty player and his team, and prohibited them from “doing the right thing” and continuing to refuse to recognize the “fumble” that resulted.

But “Commissioner” Goodell and his talking head PR team think the game is great, and the rules are fine, and they are making the players safer.  Excuse me, but I am throwing a penalty flag and calling “BS” on them.  I, for one, refuse to be silent in the face of such self-serving nonsense and lies!

Not when, in the meantime, more professional players’ lives are being destroyed with each violent tackle or block – legal or illegal.  Worse, by failing to take any meaningful ameliorative action, despite claims of concern and action, they are continuing to endanger the lives of young children whose parents allow them to get involved in youth football.  The fact that for these young children and their parents, the willfully dangerous decision is often strongly influenced by an equally noxious truth that for many inner-city, lowest income kids and families, football represents the best, and often only, potential path out of poverty and away from crime infested neighborhoods, only makes the continued denial and failure to improve conditions that much more heinous.

And for those, like the “leadership” of the NFL, who claim that there is not more that can be done, I offer the case of the Seattle Seahawks, who, for the past two years, have focused on teaching their players a different way of tackling.  The techniques are used in professional rugby, a similar game that is played without protect helmets or heavy pads, and involve driving towards a tackle more directly, far less frequently placing one’s own head in the line of the contact, targeting the ball carrier in the safe middle zone of their body, which is, not coincidentally, also the most effective place to achieve the goal of stopping a runner. 

They are the only team taking this approach.  Not coincidentally, they have had one of the best defenses in the league the last couple of years.  And they have suffered among the fewest concussions in the league since they started this approach, despite the number of reported concussions rising significantly in that time, despite the commissioner’s claims that players are now safer!  And yet, no other teams are copying them.  The league has not stepped in to evaluate and learn.  Few, if any, mainstream sports media outlets are reporting on this phenomenon.  And no one in authority has yet made the obvious suggestion to look at rugby, and consider the impact of the “protective” helmets and pads on the damaging contacts, with an eye to getting rid of them, and making players far more accountable, through increased risk to themselves, for their contact with other players. THAT would be a change for the better!

Frame 6 – Tying It All Together – I find myself asking tonight, what Mishpatim would have said about the sordid reality that is professional football today?  IMHO, the ethical system upon which Judaism is built, much of it expressed in this week’s Torah portion, clearly obligates the powerful to act with awareness for and concern about the impact on the weak; clearly values life and health; clearly expects and requires justice and fairness, honest communication, and admission of responsibility at all times.

On ALL of these yardsticks, the behavior of the NFL leadership towards its players and its game falls woefully short.  That they leave themselves open to the interpretation that they are more interested in maintaining their own personal profits and power than they are about the health and safety of those who work for them, or the integrity of the game, and the impact they have upon American society as a whole, only makes this a bigger set of failures.

In other words, according to this week’s Torah portion, this IS a Jewish issue – or at least an issue that Judaism DOES speak to quite clearly.  And yes, there may be larger issues in the world today that also cry out for our outrage, our advocacy, and our action.  But try to convince the families of the several dozen players who have already died and been posthumously diagnosed, or of the far too many others whose behavior, or injury history, now raise warning flags that they, too, may have already been permanently damaged by CTE, that there are bigger issues.  Try to convince the growing number of parents, now up to 30%, who, when surveyed, say they would NOT let their children start to play football, because of the potential danger.  Or the too many parents who are ignoring the data, and riding their slim hope of athletic success in football as the vehicle to escaping their poverty and dangerous neighborhoods – but at what price?

Because, if we learn anything from Mishpatim, it is that, even as an ethical society must assign monetary values to many daily realities of life, there is no price that we can ethically place on the value of human life.  And, while football may be a game, it is also a big business, and, until the concussion issue, and other issues, are properly addressed, an engine of life endangerment.

So, no, I will NOT be watching the game on Sunday.  I have never been so thankful that my team did not win this year, making this an easy decision for me.  I do not expect that anyone of significance, or even any of you, will be influenced by my decision, that my personal boycott will change any of the issues for the better.  But I will sleep better, happier that I am living my ethical values.  And I will keep pointing out the hypocrisies, the moral aversions, the outright transgressions, but most importantly, the dangers connected to this sport, and inviting others to break themselves of their football “habit,” to speak out and act in support of their values and the value of life.  Because if I don’t, it is very possible that no one else will.  And I cannot live with the guilt on my conscience that will come from continued silence.

Because Mishpatim also teaches us, in words repeated by the Rabbis in Pirkei Avot, some 1700 years ago, that “All Israel is responsible, one for the other;” that in a community, everyone has responsibility for the well-being of everyone else.  And THAT is a teaching central to my self-identity as a Jew, one that I strive to live by every day.  One that makes the difference between our success and failure as a community.  And THAT is a result I AM willing to bet on, and DO care about making real.

On Being Commanded, and Our Values – Inquiry and Homage

Note:  Posting this for the response it received… especially the bit that is now in bold and italics that is a reworking of the Ten Commandments in a more values based, general English than the specifics of the original, but, imho, still consistent with the original,,,

Musings for Parshat Yitro – January 29, 2016

Rabbi Steve Weisman, Temple Solel, Bowie MD

We have just heard the stirring sound of the “Ten Commandments.”  The words are still powerful and transformative some 3000 years later.  They still raise fascinating challenges for us tonight, even as we hear them rehearsed again – we may not all be able to recite them verbatim and in order, even with an assist from the windows of this sanctuary, but we certainly KNOW what they say to us as a whole.

Question number one – what do these words really give to us, as American Reform Jews of the early 21^st century?  We, who do not believe in the compulsive nature of halachah – a comprehensive system of Jewish ritual and legal proscriptions that are binding upon our behavior.  So, what hold do these words REALLY have upon us?

Indeed, some have accused us, as a movement, of reducing these to the “Ten Commitments,” or “Ten Promises.”  After all, there is assuredly a difference between “I will try to observe Shabbat,” and “You shall observe Shabbat.”  And, if we are being honest, most of us, even those who have chosen to be here tonight, for whatever reason, and are therefore more aware of the reality of Shabbat in our lives in some way, are probably more comfortable with the former commitment than we are with the latter command.

For me, I choose to see these “Ten Words” (the literal translation of the Hebrew term for the words we read earlier – Aseret HaDibrot, and NOT the expected Aseret HaMitzvot) as the beginning and core of the basic values that Torah teaches us about what it means to be a “good” Jew.  To paraphrase them:  

...Think intentionally about God, and the role of the Divine in our lives.  

...Establish rituals for our lives, 

...and be careful in our use of words. 

...Set aside time to escape from the everyday world, recharge ourselves, and do things we don’t have time for during the rest of the week that allow us to remember and reconnect with God’s presence in our lives and the world.  

...Honor our parents, and all others who have been powerful (and positive, we hope) influences on us.  

...Value life, not just our own, but others'.  

...Value our relationships – of all kinds.  

...Respect what does not belong to us..., and those to whom it does belong.  

...Speak the truth and act upon it. 

Restated this way, these words can play a significant role in our lives, without forcing us to embrace a particular set of behaviors.  That is the beauty of values as opposed to commands – the latter demand obedience; the former require commitment to and investment in them.  Restated this way, they are more than theoretical, idealized goals – they instead become the foundation for all that we do as Jews,  even if we each interpret them differently and derive different paths of action from them.  Which hints at a question we need to return to in just a moment.

This reinterpretation leads to a second set of questions, that stem from this one – what does it mean for us, in this day and age, to be “commanded”?  This question requires us to confront our understanding of and relationship to and with our God.  Does God command us today?  If so, in what ways?  And how do we know?  And, for many of us, before we can get to those questions, we must confront even more basic questions about God – Do we believe in God?  If so, what do we believe about God?  How confident are we in these beliefs?  And, a question that seems to become more significant every day – how do we interact with God, and with those who have different understandings than we do about God?

Each of these is worthy of its own sermon and discussion.  For tonight, as Rabbi of this congregation, I am far less concerned with the specific details of our answers to each of these questions as I am that we have answers to them at all.  Because, without answers, we cannot approach the bigger questions that surround the idea of being commanded.  With them, even when we disagree, we at least have the beginnings of finding common ground, on which we can take the next few steps of our journey together.

This, too, hints at the same question we delayed raising earlier – How do our personal understandings about God, commandments, and being commanded impact our own words, behaviors, attitudes, our actions, our interactions and relationships with each other?  Our answers to this question are critical to how we live our lives, and are heavily influenced by our answers to all the previous questions we have raised tonight.

If we see the Commandments as requirements of a commanding God, then not only do we feel compelled to follow them, but to judge others – and ourselves - by how we perceive them succeeding or failing at following the Commandments as well.  Does anyone else recognize that reality in the headlines from our world today?  I sure do!

If we see them as Commandments, but are not sure of their Source or the process thru which we become commanded, how can we hope to succeed in acting as we are expected to act?  Here, too, I believe we can all recognize many truths about life today playing out in this reality.

If we see them as Suggestions, Commitments, or Promises, even if we have a high comfort level with God, and more so if we do not, what distinguishes these from other suggestions, commitments, or promises from other sources, at other levels of significance? What compels us to follow through on these, to act upon them better than in other cases?

BUT, if we see these words as the beginning and core of our system of values, then it is possible to embrace them with or without a solid sense of God’s place in our lives.  Indeed, these values can, and, one might contend, actually DO, lead us toward God.  And, even more, toward each other – whether we agree with their interpretations or not – BECAUSE WE ARE JOURNEYING, IF NOT ON THE SAME PATH AS THESE OTHERS, THEN ON PATHS THAT CAN BE EASILY SEEN AS BEING PARALLEL TO THEIRS, MERGING WITH THEIRS AT TIMES, or HEADING TO THE SAME PLACE AS THEIRS.

This understanding also allows us to balance better the twin pulls of modern liberal Judaism – accepting and embracing the tradition we have received from previous generations, even as we try to understand and reimagine what Judaism means for us today and tomorrow.

None of this can occur effectively in a haphazard manner.  This only works with personal commitment – to embrace tradition, to strive to develop our Judaism for our own realities, to reach out for God, to accept the values, and to reach beyond the self to journey with others. To live with integrity, consistency, and deliberate intention. 

Which is why, before God made these words known directly to ALL the Israelites gathered at the base of the mountain, God instructed Moses to have our ancestors prepare themselves for 3 days to receive what they would see and hear.  It is why God set physical limits around the base of the mountain, so that they had to maintain a respectful distance, in order to enjoy a sense of appropriate perspective.  And these preparations and precautions are a good lesson for us in our efforts to be intentional in our approach to the Commandments as well!

For these reasons and more, these words, these teachings, these values from this week’s Torah, are elevated above others in how I seek to live as a Jew.  In the words of Gates of Prayer – these words are equal to all the others of our tradition, because they lead to them all.  Without the values gleaned from this portion, from these three critical sets of questions raised by what we read tonight, it would be far more difficult, if not impossible, to live our lives in ways that allow us to connect effectively with each other, to walk together with and towards God in a Jewish way.  Btw, these 3 sets of questions align well with the elemental triangle of Judaism – our understanding of and relationship with God, Torah, and our fellow Jews - the basis of our Covenant with God!

Which is where my message should end.  However, I beg your indulgence for one more minute, as I acknowledge a deep debt.  I could not express this message, this essence of my understanding of Judaism today, were it not for having been privileged to learn from Rabbi Eugene Borowitz, quite possibly the leading Jewish thinker of the second half of the 20^th Century, who raised these very questions, and led three generations of Reform Rabbis (and religious scholars of all stripes) to confront the answers for ourselves, and the Jewish people.

Gene left us last Friday, a few days short of his 92^nd birthday.  My own relationship with Borowitz began long before I reached his class at HUC, when he encouraged me, as a teenager, to follow my interest in Judaism and the Rabbinate.  The encouragement he provided to me, the interest he showed to a young man who sat behind him in the pews at Community Synagogue in Port Washington (where he, too, was a member), were instrumental in my decision to become a Rabbi.  The example he provided as a teacher and Rabbi, and the intellectual integrity and rigor he demanded of me, and every student he learned from, is the same one I seek to provide today.  I hope and pray, and believe, that if he is capable of looking down upon us now, he may have been listening into these words tonight, no doubt with his green pen ready to make corrections, or raise unconsidered questions or inconsistencies in what I have spoken.  If he is, for the first time since I walked into his classroom, I hope and believe that he may find little reason to use that pen.  He was a blessing to me, and so many others, and with these words tonight, I hope I have been able to share that blessing.  May we embrace his challenge, and learn the lessons he sought to teach us all, and share them with future generations.