Are we winning the World Cup?

Neither Israel nor South Africa even sent a team to the World Cup, and I won’t bother waving my American patriotism around until soccer becomes an actual sport in the United States.

On the public relations front, Israeli journalists are being harassed and intimidated by Iranian, Saudi, and other antisemitic gangsters, freely flaunting their hatred for us on the streets of a country that proudly does so as well.

So, what exactly are we winning in Qatar?

Well, the Tel Aviv to Doha charter flight wasn’t the first foray out of Israel into that reliably dangerous territory.

This week’s “text message from heaven” is the parsha of VaYeitezi that describes the journey of Yaakov out of the safe confines of his parents sheltered home in Israel into the land of treachery and deceit in Charan, not far from modern-day Qatar.

For 22 years, Yaakov endured the derision and disgust of Lavan, the world’s first antisemite, who paved the way for the ugliness we see in Qatar today.

But Yaakov won.

First, he returned home with a more powerful sense of identity, pride, and spiritual connection to G-d; second, a beautiful new Jewish family of 12 children; and third, abundant wealth spiritually and materially, having changed the world forever.

When Qatar’s temporary Chabad representative, rabbinic intern Eli Chitrik, the son of my dear colleague, Rabbi Mendy, from Istanbul, stands on the streets of Doha with delicious kosher supervised freshly baked sandwiches this week, he’s not just offering some respite to World Cup fans who happen to be of the chosen people.

He’s also offering a chance to:

1. Reframe our challenges (whether antisemitism or whatever else you’re dealing with) as an opportunity to build a stronger Jewish identity and connection to G-d;
2. Build a Jewish family, whether through a nice person you might meet at a kosher food rendezvous, or actually through any form of Jewish activity which creates the “offspring” ripple effect that every mitzva spawns; and
3. Accumulate the wealth of blessings that come from sticking it out as a faithful Yid, precisely when the going gets tough, and which ultimately wins, (changing) the world (cup) for good.

Not only in Doha. It will work in Cape Town and Joburg as well.

Try it.

It’s been a winning formula for more than 3 500 years.