Rosh Hashana at Pacific Jewish Center was wonderful. The services were inspiring, the attendance was excellent and the mood properly reflected the importance of the days.
I spoke from the pulpit several times over the holiday.
There was certainly an over-arching theme to my sermons. Each had its own individual message but overall they reflected an idea that I feel is central to Rosh Hashana, judgment, repentance, Judaism and Humanity.
It is too easy to get caught up in ourselves. We hope for a good verdict, we try to be the best people we can be as individuals.
For me, the greater challenge is fitting in the group. Every time I spoke over the Holiday, the underlying theme was Unity.Each person really has three identities.
One is our own personal accomplishments. Everything that one does in their life goes into this category and those things have value on their own. We look at the person in a vacuum and assess their achievements as an individual. Everyone has unique talents and abilities that make then who they are.
The second identity is the person’s group. Everyone is part of various groups. Whether by religion, race, political party, trade or family we all belong to groups. Those groups form a part of our identity. But each group member’s individual role is not relevant. The group has an identity and by association with that group, that identity becomes the identity of everyone in the group.
The third identity is the most important. It is the combination of number 1 and number 2. It is how we interact with the group using our individual talents and abilities. This identity is the meeting point of the indidual and the group. If the individual is selfish and uses their talents and abilities for their own personal gain and ignores the group, the person has failed in this identity. But if the person is able to part if the group and use their individualism to elevate the group, then in turn, they elevate themselves.
No where is this third identity clearer to the observer than in competitive team sports. The individual performer has his or her own talents and abilities. What separates the great ones from the rest, is their ability to use those skills and elevate the team.
It is no different in real life. We all have skills and we are all part of groups. We need to use those skills to elevate our groups, not just ourselves.
It was particularly appropriate to find a short post on the NBA Truehoop Blog about this issue today.
LeBron James has a new movie. It is supposed to be about teamwork, but as Truehoop so eloquently puts it, the preview completely fails in this regard.
The bummer about it, however, is that the movie is all about teamwork, but the undeniable message of the preview’s format (James, shooting alone in a gym) is that celebrity trumps all.
Watch the preview below and you will see just what they mean.
Good imagery for the wrong message. We need to be team players in sports and more importantly in life.
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