Imagine there are four seconds left to play at the Super Bowl. The offensive team lines up for a 33 yard field goal attempt. The kick goes up and it is good! The scoreboard shows 0 seconds left to play. The game is over. Before the field goal, the score was 17-14, but now it is a 17-17 tie. Imagine if it was decided there would be no overtime period. The game would be tied and both teams win.

I remember when I was younger and followed ice hockey, after the 60 minutes of play, there was a five minute overimte period. If no one scored, each team would get one point in the standings (they got 2 points if they won, 0 if they lost) and it would be recorded as a tie. I have been told that all of this changed a few years ago. Now there is a shoot-out until one team wins the game. No one likes ties.

This is the American culture. No one wants to be even with someone else. Everyone wants to be a winner and the “only” champion. Everyone wants to be the world record holder in something. This is why the Guinness Book of World Records is so thick; they have records for every little thing so everyone can feel like a winner in something.

But in Judaism, it is different. This week’s parsha is the longest parsha we have, but if you look at it, you might think there is no reason for its length. At the end of the parsha, it mentions the offerings brought by the twelve tribes. Each tribe gets its own five verses, but the amazing thing is that every tribe brings exactly the same thing. These sixty verses repeat the same thing over and over and over again. The only difference is the name of the leader that brings the offerings and the name of the tribe. These sixty verses can be shortened down to probably less than ten. Why do we need all of them?

The answer is to show make it clear to us that all of them brought the same offering. One did not need to be better than another. All of them can be the same and be winners. In sports, you can only have one winner, but in Judaism, we can tie and all be winners. Many arguments and fights happen because someone wants to be better than someone else. People all want to be number One. But this week’s parsha reminds us that we do not have to get involved in those fights. Tie games are not a bad thing. These offerings were used to dedicate the altar (one of the greatest events in world history) but no one needed to stand out above the rest. What a lesson for us to learn!

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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