Rabbi’s Take on Super Bowl Party

Rabbi Anchelle Perl of Chabad Mineola Shares his all-Kosher Super Bowl Party.

Your Super Bowl party is more than the television and the food. You can turn it into a significant gathering with your family and guests, sharing meaningful thoughts. Before eating invite all to give charity to a cause helping the hungry and holes. Then update everyone with lessons of appreciation from the game and the very food you are eating.

Super Bowl – Lessons in Life

We often refer to the serious side of life with sports terminology. For instance: “the game of life,” “games people play,” and even “war games.” Sports can teach us about the serious side of life. You never know how a football will bounce; Life also throws us curves and unexpected bounces along the way. How often do we react to them properly?

Think of this: A man gets up early in the morning to prepare for a very important business meeting, but everything seems to go wrong for him. He spills coffee on his shirt at breakfast, and slams the closet door on his fingers in his hurry to get a new shirt. By the time he grabs his briefcase and rushes to the door, he has lost his temper and yelled at his children, his wife, and even the dog.

Imagine if he had found an envelope on his pillow addressed to him the night before. The note inside read: “Dear Joe, Tomorrow morning you will spill coffee on your shirt, and slam your fingers in the closet door. Signed: God.” When all these things happen, will he still react in such a negative way, or will he keep in mind that God is testing him?

This is how we have to try to face all of life. It isn’t a game that we have to win at any cost; rather it is a challenge from God, an opportunity for spiritual growth.

Super Bowl – What came first the chicken wings or the egg?

Super Bowl Sunday is considered the second biggest eating day of the year after Thanksgiving- – – there’s no hotter time of year for chicken wings, which have become a staple food on Super Bowl menus.

So the perennial question as to which came first, the chicken or the egg, was simply solved a long time ago by the Talmudic statement that all works of creation were brought into being in full-grown stature, in complete understanding, and in their designated shape and form.

Super Bowl – Kosher Chicken Wings

Our divine service must be a balance of love and great awe of G-d. This love and awe of G‑d are referred to by the sages as “trey gadfin”, in Aramaic “two wings”, (not exactly Chicken wings), this is how we elevate oneself to higher and higher levels of divine service each day.

Just as a bird soars the skies on its two wings, so a mitzvah and words of prayer are carried upwards upon the wings of love and awe. We are all born with these wings—We all have that innate love of G‑d. We just need some exercise to get them unfurled and flapping. This comes with daily contemplating on G‑d’s greatness, imagine how the great Creator is putting everything aside to pay attention to our prayers, helping and blessing us every moment of our lives.

So why did the rabbi cross the road? – Because the chicken needed a day off.
Why did the chicken and the rabbi cross the road halfway? They wanted to lay it on the line. (Hey don’t complain, you are getting what you paid for)

Super Bowl -Judaism is Team Work

Many sports are played with teams… We know that even though certain players may be in the limelight, every player must do his job for the team to be successful. A quarterback may have a great arm, but if the front line doesn’t give him time, he won’t have a chance to throw. You may hit a triple in baseball, but if no one drives you in, the game’s score will not be affected.

Judaism is also a team sport. One can’t concern himself solely with one’s personal needs. One must also be aware of the community’s needs. Each of us comprise in ourselves all of the Jewish people who have ever lived and who will live in the future. Every individual makes his or her contribution to the whole.