Jackson Gurvich [November 7, 2020] Parshat Vayera
Shabat shalom.
My torah portion is called par-shat va-yei-ra. There are 4 big stories in this torah portion. One of the stories is that Abraham had hospitality towards a
couple of strangers. The second is the story of sodom and Gomorrah. The 3rd story is about Abraham traveling to the Negev desert and meeting King
A-bi-me-lech. The 4th story is known as a-kei-dah which is the binding of Isaac. Later in the story Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac to show loyalty to
God. But the story I am most interested in and found most relevant to my life today is the story about Sodom and Gomorrah.
The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is a story about Abraham pleading with God so that God doesn’t destroy the city. God is planning to destroy a city
that God thinks is filled with bad people. But Abraham scrambles with God to ask if God would save the city if Abraham could find fifty good people.
And God says “Yes.” And Abraham then asks about 45, then 40, and so on until he gets to 10. And even at 10, God says yes. The reason the Sodom and
Gomorrah story is so interesting to me is because it has real life correlation to team work. It teaches that it can’t just be you or me being a good person
- we all need to work together to accomplish good things. When I think about this story and this lesson, I think about team sports and
lacrosse in particular. For example, in lacrosse, if one person misses a pass the whole team misses the ability to score a goal on that play.
However if a pass is not missed, the team has a chance to take a shot which could end up as a goal. All of the players depend on each other to
work hard and to keep their skills up so that they can get to the goal and win the game. If one person doesn’t do their part, the whole team fails.
I also think about the Warriors - before they started to be really good, they only had one good player, and they couldn’t be a good team with only one
good player. Then they got more good players and they worked hard together and they became a good team together. That symbolizes that one
man can not carry a full team to a championship with one good player. The Warriors could not succeed as much with just Steph. Another example is
Kyrie Irving, one of the best point guards in the NBA. But he could not take the Cavaliers to the championship without Lebron, and without his team
practicing hard and becoming united as a team. This year, Lebron and Anthony Davis took the Lakers to win, but even they couldn’t have done it
without the rest of their team working together and supporting each other. The Rabbis taught “Don’t separate yourself from the community.” If you
separate yourself from the community, it would just be you, not your team or your community. Without others, you wouldn’t accomplish as much as
you could with the support of others. You might also be pretty lonely, might not have as much fun, and might not feel supported by others either.
Teamwork is important because you won’t accomplish everything you can accomplish with just you, rather than a bunch of people working together
as a whole. I hope that everyone has a community that supports them and stays with them, and that they can give back to as well.