Tim Tebow and Faith: Parashat VaYeishev 5772

Full disclosure before we begin. I am going to talk about two topics this morning that have become intertwined over the past several months, and one of the topics is popular and the other is not. I will start with the unpopular one. I am going to be talking about God this morning. Now, I know what you are thinking, how can God be unpopular, billions of people around the world and some in this very room offer there innermost thoughts and prayers to God on a daily basis, so surely God is the very definition of popular; and according to this logic you are most certainly correct. But the fact remains, that to openly and honestly discuss God in our society, to talk about our faith, what it means to us and how it helps to guide our lives, is at least polarizing and at worse alienating to many people; hence the reason why some of you are already squirming in your seats.

But don’t worry, that’s where the popular topic will come in and save your attention span! Football. That’s right, America’s obsession, the National Football League, and in particular its latest locus of popular attention (both positive and negative) the Denver Broncos’ Quarterback Tim Tebow. For those who may not pay as close attention as I do, Tim Tebow has become a phenomenon for two reasons. This first one is simple: despite the fact that he is generally considered a mediocre quarterback with none of the usually prerequisites for success at his position, he has orchestrated a fourth-quarter or overtime win for his team five out of the last eight weeks, and has led his them to victory in all but one of the games he has started this season. The second reason for his ascension to stardom is more complicated. You see Tim Tebow is an avowed Christian, an evangelical who not only wears his faith on his sleeve, but will often ‘wear his faith’ on his face, putting Biblical verses of inspiration on the eye-black he wears on game day. In another popular public display of his faith, while his teammates celebrate the moment of victory, he has taken to bowing on one knee giving thanks to his God, and what’s more, this iconic move now has its very own name: ‘Tebowing.’ After his last ‘miraculous’ victory one congregant texted me ‘How do I convert?’ (He was joking, of course….I think.) It is because of this second reason: his bold, prideful and public faith, that Tebow has become a lightning-rod for controversy, and not surprisingly there are those who love him for his deep religious commitments, and there are those who despise him for it.

Now let me be very clear. I have never liked him, I will never root for him, and I hope he loses every game he plays in for the rest of his career. But my passionate dislike for Tebow has absolutely nothing to do with his faith – it has everything to do with the fact that he went to and graduated from the University of Florida, my alma mater, Florida State University’s, sworn rival.

But seriously, there are those out there who do root against Tim Tebow, and at least partly, they do so in spite of his faith. And in my estimation, the attacks on his faithfulness stem from a complete misunderstanding of the role that God plays in all of our lives.

Which brings me to this morning’s parasha, Parashat VaYeisheiv. In our Torah portion this morning we begin the narrative of Joseph, a well-written biblical story which follows the varied ups and downs of the character Joseph from his life as a favored son of his father Jacob, to his near-death experience at the hands of his jealous brothers, his being sold into slavery in Egypt, his imprisonment, and ultimately his redemption. The tale of Joseph is all about faith. At each and every turn, just when you think Joseph is doomed, the Bible teaches us that God is watching and protecting Joseph, and to his credit, Joseph can feel that faith within him.

In one section of our parasha this morning, Joseph finds himself placed in prison, something we as readers are sure to assume is going to spell ruin for our Biblical forefather. But that is not the case. God again protects Joseph, and the chief jailor promotes Joseph to be in charge of the prison. The text tells us:
אֵין ׀ שׂר בֵּית-הַסּהַר רֹאֶה אֶֽת-כָּל-מְאוּמָה בְּיָדוֹ בַּאֲשׁר יְהוֹה אִתּוֹ, וַֽאֲשׁר הוּא עֹשֶׂה - יְהוָֹה מַצְלִֽיחַ

“The chief jailor did not supervise anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because the Lord was with him, and whatever Joseph did - the Lord made successful.”

This pasuk clearly indicates what turns out to be a repeating theme throughout the Joseph narrative, which is Hakol B’y’deai Shamayim – everything is in the hands of Heaven, that God is in control of the ups and the downs, the good and the bad in our lives.

For his own part Joseph seems to internalize this message of Divine intervention when he employs his skills as an interpreter of dreams. When he learns that Pharaoh’s chief cup-bearer and baker have had disturbing dreams, his response is telling:
הֲלוֹא לֵֽאלֹהִים פִּתְרֹנִים סַפְּרוּ-נָא לִֽי:
“Surely God has the interpretations! Tell me your dreams.”

Interesting. Joseph understands that while ultimately all interpretations find their source in the divine, Joseph sees himself as God’s earthly intercessor. ‘Tell me your dreams, and God will speak through my words.’

It seems that the underlying theme for the entire Joseph narrative is that God has a plan for Joseph’s life, and Joseph, for his part, trusts in that plan. It may require an act of brotherly violence, it may necessitate a failed seduction at the hands of Potiphar’s wife, it might call for a period of imprisonment, but ultimately Joseph’s life is in God’s hands, and everything will turn out for the best.

And if this is making your modernity a bit uncomfortable, then let me throw this one in the mix, the famous quotation of our rabbis in the Talmud, the one I alluded to earlier – the full text reads:
הכל בידי שמים - חוץ מיראת שמים
Everything is in the hands of heaven, except for fear of heaven.

This teaching seems to indicate that perhaps the only thing left to us in the entire world, the only thing that is not predetermined is our own predilection towards fear of heaven, that is our decision whether or not to have faith in God, that is our’s, and that alone.

And you want a cherry on top? Well the Ishbitzer Rebbe, Rabbi Mordechai Yosef Leiner, in his famous work The Mei HaShiloah, alters the phrase further:
הכל בידי שמים - אפילו יראת שמים
Everything is in the hands of heaven – even fear of heaven.

That even our ‘choice’ to believe in God is illusory. In fact, says the Ishbitzer, God has already determined whether or not you will choose to believe.

Which brings us to the uncomfortable, and as we will see the dubious conclusion, that Jewish theology leads us to a kind of divine fatalism, a sense that everything is indeed pre-determined by God, who is constantly manipulating our universe, our world, and even the very minutia of our lives.

But ultimately this is a false conclusion, for Judaism and indeed for all modern religions. Surely there are streams of Judaism which lean towards the fatalistic – Ultra-Orthodox Hasidism, for example. But other streams, from the rabbis of our ancient Talmud, to the medieval Maimonides to the most famous thinkers and theologians of today, Kaplan, Heschel, Gillman; they all tend to lean towards a nuanced understanding of God’s influence upon our worldly events. Can God act in our world? We may believe so. Can we say that with certainty? Of course not. Do we know how God works? Certainly I do not.

Which brings me back to our friend Tim Tebow. I believe that what has stirred up so much controversy is our misunderstanding of what it means to have faith. After all, Tim Tebow himself has explained that he does not believe that God has a hand in the outcome of his games. If so, then are we to believe that God favors Tim Tebow’s Broncos but dislikes Marion Barber’s Chicago Bears? Is it possible that Tebow and the Broncos are more faithful, and therefore more successful on the gridiron? Does this mean that my Eagles are a bunch of heathens? And if athletes are fond of praising God after victories, does it mean that they should blame God for every fumble, every interception and every loss?

The answer, of course, to all of these straw-men questions is no. The truth is that by committing ourselves to lives of faith, no matter which religion we espouse, it does not mean that we must believe in strict fatalism. I reject the false dichotomy that is faith vs. reason. Believing does not mean giving up on our modernity, our rationalism, or perhaps most importantly, our sense of profound responsibility towards perfecting God’s world. And the better part of the last thousand years of our own Jewish tradition has been built around an understanding that God might very well have the power to act in our world, but Ain Som’chin al ha Neis – We are not permitted to sit around waiting for miracles. It is up to us as individuals and as a community to make the right choices, to act ethically, and to uphold God’s everlasting values in our world. And as Tim Tebow can no doubt teach us, this is hard work. This is countless hours spent improving ourselves and therefore our communities. This is what it means to have faith; and expressing this faith through prayer, through study, and yes, through sharing our beliefs with others should be lauded - not lamented.

And so, despite his mistakes in choosing a university, I am willing to give Tebow the benefit of the ‘faith.’ That is, to recognize that his faith, though no doubt different than my own, is a source of strength to him and to billions like him. And I hope that he would agree with my understanding of faith: that when we thank God, we are not thanking the Arbiter of good and bad, of blessings and curses. We are thanking the Source of our strength, we are praising the tenets of our tradition, and we are expressing gratitude for the sense of purpose which allows us to weather the losses, and yes, to gladly rejoice at the victories that life may bring.

Shabbat Shalom.