This past week on Motzi Shabbos, Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies pitched the 20th perfect game in major league baseball history. An amazing feat! How should one celebrate after this type of experience happens? How does one respond to this great news? We’ll answer these questions in a moment.

Two times every year, I feel great confusion. One is when we read parshas Ki Sisa and the other is when we read this week’s parsha, Shelach. These two parshios have within them the accounts of two of the worst moments in Jewish history: in Ki Sisa is the account of the Golden Calf and in Shelach is the account of the Spies, which caused all of the Jewish men between the ages of 20 and 60 that left Egypt to die in the desert. These are certainly low points in Jewish history, but personally, for me, these are actually great moments. The reason is because my ancestors (at least from my father’s side) did not take part in these transgressions. I am a Levi and, as we know, the tribe of Levi did not take part in either of these events. If a person looks closely at these parshios, he will notice that these accounts are told over during the Levi Aliyah. The reason for this is because the Levi is not embarrassed by these events. With this in mind, I once asked the following question: How am I supposed to feel towards these events: happy that my tribe did what was right or sad about what happened. The answer I was given was I should feel happy and proud of what the Levi’im did. The Levi’im were correct by what they did and a person should feel pride.

Although I should feel pride, a person should not become arrogant because he or his people did something good. Although a Levi should be very excited about what his ancestors did in this week’s parsha, before he starts letting his ego run wild, he should remember what happens in next week’s parsha, Korach. Next week, we learn how a man from the tribe of Levi convinced his friends to rebel against Moshe and Aharon. It is a terrible moment in the history of the Levi’im.

No one is perfect. A person might do a great thing one moment, but the next moment, he might not do a great thing. How should a person feel? A person should always feel proud of himself when he does something good. It is good to have self confidence! But a person should not become arrogant just because they have done something great. Who knows what will happen in the future and if he will always be so great?

Roy Halladay pitched a perfect game, which is certainly something to be proud of. Mr. Halladay and the entire Philadelphia Phillies team should be very happy over what happened in Miami Lakes this past Saturday night. But this does not mean that any of them should walk around with arrogance. Most likely, Mr. Halladay will not have a perfect season the rest of the year. He will probably get losses and who knows, these losses might turn out to be huge as the season goes on. After Saturday night’s game, the Philadelphia Phillies were in first place in the National League East Division, but now, just a few days later, they are in second. Although they had a great outing on Saturday night, since that game, they have lost four straight games. So although a person can be proud of his accomplishments, he should not become arrogant over it.

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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