This Saturday night is very important for my mother. She grew up in North Carolina. She attended the University of North Carolina. For my mother, this Saturday Night is a College Basketball celebration. Of the final four teams that begin play Saturday night, two universities are from North Carolina and will play each other in one of the two semifinal games: the University of North Carolina (UNC) and Duke University. The two universities are a few miles apart. They are rivals in everything. For the past 40 years, Duke University along with UNC has been among the most successful programs. Coach Mike Krzyzewski (Coach K) has been the Duke head coach for 40 years and announced that he will retire when his time has completed its run in the tournament. So his last game will be Saturday night if he loses or Monday night at the completion of the championship. Coach K is widely regarded as the most successful coach of all time having won five national titles, 13 Final Fours, 15 ACC tournament championships, and 13 ACC regular-season titles. Only John Wooden who coached UCLA to 10 National titles from 1965-to 1975 has won more. However, in those years the tournament consisted of far fewer teams thereby requiring fewer wins to achieve the championship. As impressive as Coach K’s record is, perhaps more impressive is his legacy, the “Coaching Tree”. Currently, there are 11 coaches at the college and pro levels who either played for Coach K or served as one of his assistant coaches. When coach K retires either when he loses Saturday night or after Monday night’s final game, those ranks will grow by one as Duke’s new head coach also played for Coach K and has served as an assistant under coach K for the past 8 years. Coach K has created 12 branches on his tree. If those coaches achieve half the success that Coach K achieved the coaching legacy would more than triple in size within two decades. Imagine the wisdom, knowledge, and purity of purpose and spirit needed to create such a legacy?
This Shabbat is Shabbat HaChodesh, the fourth of the special Sabbaths that precede Passover. It is also Rosh Chodesh for the month of Nisan. The Torah portion is Parsha Tazria. Parsha Tazria concentrates upon how impurity, spiritual impurity is passed between people. The majority of the Parsha focuses on Leprosy as it was considered to be a very physically contagious disease. Parsha Tazria puts the diagnosis, the treatment, and the convalescence in spiritual terms rather than physical terms. We learn that while this Tumah, this spiritual impurity is present, the stricken individual cannot reside within the camp. After all, God dwells in the camp and we cannot tolerate any impurity near God.
However, prior to its discussion of Leprosy, Parsha Tazria outlines the somewhat troubling laws concerning impurity in childbirth. Fundamentally, the notion of impurity relates to coming into contact with that which is dead. In Parsha Shemini, Torah outlined impurities that come from dead animals. In this Parsha, we are reminded that a Mother is touched by death during the miracle of childbirth. Isha Ki Tazria V’Yalda Zachar V’Tamah Shivat Yamim Kimei Nitdat Dotah Titmah – When a woman conceives and gives birth to a male, she shall be impure for a seven day period as during the days of her separation infirmity shall she be impure. (Lev. 12:2). Imagine becoming spiritually impure after being blessed by the miracle of childbirth. Yet, this new mother lost blood; she lost some aspect of her life force during the birth process. As a result, while simultaneously being touched by a new life, she is also touched by her own mortality. Perhaps there is no more intense moment than when a new mother, physically exhausted and spent, holds the newborn. The Talmudic Rabbis explain that surviving childbirth is equivalent to a near-death experience and saying Birkat HaGomeil is therefore required. (Praised are You, Lord Our God, King of the universe who graciously bestows favor upon the undeserving, even as He has bestowed favor upon me.) Inherent to surviving a near-death experience is the notion that the individual comes precipitously close to death.
When we experience the intensity that embodies the purity of life we are frequently reminded of our own mortality. Whether it is, the birth of children, and their life cycle events and ours: a bar/bat mitzvah, graduation, a wedding, incredible achievements, or something more frequent weekly moments such as blessing one’s children every Friday Night at the Shabbat dinner table; in the purity and holiness of those life-affirming moments, in the sanctity and blessing that are those moments, we sense our own mortality, the fragility of life, and its blessings. We see not only the purity and blessing of life in the child, but we see our legacy, what we bequeath to the world, children that embody our wisdom, and values. That idea is not only confined to parents and children, but pertains to teachers and students, mentors and disciples, and coaches and players. Indeed, we are reminded that in all of these paradigms, the person receiving the wisdom and knowledge is a sacred legacy. So when Coach K walks off the basketball court for the last time, my mother, North Carolinians, and fans of college basketball will witness the departure of a coach that leaves a sacred legacy to his profession.
Rav Yitz
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