Some "Super" Thoughts on the Parsha

Lessons from the Super Bowl

Leading up to the Ten Commandments, Hashem told Moshe:

Lech El Ha’Am Vekidashtam

Go to the people V’kidashtem, and sanctify them”

Rashi explains that in this context “V’Kidashtam” means ‘Vzeemantam” Moshe should prepare Bnei Yisrael. Preparation is a necessary component in achieving one’s goal. The choice of the word Kidashtam for preparation teaches us something more: preparation towards a goal is valuable, even kadosh, holy, in its own right.

This Sunday is the Super Bowl. Both the Patriots and the Eagles played 18 games this season and each game consists of one hour of play. But how many cumulative hours go into a season for each professional football team, from recruiting and marketing to coaching and training? A few years ago, the Wall Street Journal had an article that gave an estimate:  514,000 hours per team. That’s about 8 times the hours that it took to develop, build and market the Apple iPod.

If you divide a teams’ total hours of preparation by the number of offensive yards gained over a season- it works out to approximately 32 hours per foot. Talk about hard gained yardage! Every accomplishment requires preparation. Significant accomplishments, whether by a team or by an individual, require significant preparation.

Speaking of the Super Bowl, the game will feature Tom Brady starting his record setting 8th football championship game for the New England Patriots. Yet Tom Brady almost didn’t get a chance to play professional football. In 2000, 198 players were picked in the draft before him. Brady was not picked until the sixth round. This was the scouting report on Tom Brady before the draft: "Poor build, very skinny and narrow, lacks mobility and the ability to avoid the rush, lacks a really strong arm.”

So how did he become one of the best quarterbacks in the league? His teammates will tell you that it is his desire to win- whether at football or even backgammon. Brady himself has said that the key ingredient to achievement is the desire to succeed. As he has put it:

“A lot of times I find that people who are blessed with the most talent don't ever develop that attitude, and the ones who aren't blessed in that way are the most competitive and have the biggest heart.”

This sentiment may be what the Talmud in Sanhedrin means when it tells us that Rachmana liba ba’I, “G-d wants the heart: Hashem requires that we really desire our goals in order to succeed. To achieve anything in life, you have to really want it.

As we watch the Super Bowl on Sunday (or just the commercials) let us be reminded of these Super Lessons: preparation, hard work and a desire to achieve your goal are the traits necessary to win; whether on the gridiron or in life.