Centre stage

Rabbi Dovid Wineberg

Green & Sea Point Hebrew Congregation

If a nice Jewish boy or girl can’t aspire to being a top international sportsperson, how come so many hero-worship them? And it’s not only sports heroes. One look at the multibillion dollar tabloid industry reveals an insatiable hunger for the latest about Hollywood and music stars. Do our youth really aspire to such behaviour and fashion?

Someone coined the term: “Centre-stage syndrome”. Fact is, we aspire to be noticed. Actually, we believe that we are already centre-stage! After all, as an individual, you are the centre of your existence. (That’s why you’re always the hero in your dreams.)

So, worshiping famous people brings you a little closer to the centre of the stage – even if only vicariously.   

That’s why Hollywood types make the strangest fashion and relationship choices. It’s not artistic expression; it’s marketing. They know that people will gravitate to the centre part of the stage and they’re jockeying for position.

A quick glimpse of this week’s Torah reading reveals the two extremes of Jewish experience. “Ki tavo el ha’aretz” is an opening filled with the realisation of all our hopes and dreams: the promise of entry into Israel and the mitzvah of the first fruits, bikkurim. 

But before you know it, we’re traversing into dangerous territory with the “rebuke”; three columns of dire predictions in the event that we veer off G-d’s path. And the reader may wonder: How did we fall so quickly?! 

No-one understood the power of centre stage and had the ability to manipulate it (often for the good) like Princess Diana, who died 17 years ago this week. It was deeply ironic that the very thing that kept her centre stage – lifting her up as an enduring British icon – that very tool was the instrument of her death.

It is indeed a tragic truth, that in seeking to hold centre-stage, many pop icons make really dumb and dangerous choices. Often these have disastrous consequences.

You see, the power of the centre is that it either lifts you all the way up, or tears you down to the pit of oblivion. At the dawn of our existence, G-d takes Avraham outside and shows him the stars and the sand saying: “So will be your descendants.”

They are the centre stage of history and so they will either rise to the very top or sink to the dust of the earth – but there is no in-between. This is no syndrome: Such is the lot of the Chosen people.

As we enter the High Holy Days, believe in your ability to improve and succeed. Aspire to reach the stars. Be the change you wish to see in the world.

After all, you’re centre-stage.

Shabbat Shalom and Shana Tova!