Did you hear the one about the Chabad Rebbetzin, the Muslim cleric and the Buddhist monk? I was contacted by the Southwick, MA, middle school to participate in a religious diversity day. The students would be divided and rotate from room to room to hear each representative individually.

I wondered what could I say to motivate the students, not just give them specifics to fill out charts with typical questions about special foods, places of worship, holidays, and the politically correct question – what is the women’s role in this religion?

Southwick, MA, has very few Jews. How could I inspire them to more meaningful lives beyond terms such as synagogue, rabbi, gefilte fish and matza balls?

I then hit on a great equalizer, sports; and for this time of year, football.

The students shuffled into the room with their papers and pencils, eager to fill in the blanks under the “Jewish” column. I certainly didn’t look like the religious leader they expected, but they seemed relieved I didn’t have an accent.

“Imagine you’re a football coach,” I began. Southwick is New England Patriots football country and the Patriots had just won two Super Bowls, so eyes lit up and the kids seemed interested.

“Imagine,” I continued, “you are the Patriots coach, coming off two world championships. You are Bill Belichick and are being offered two new options. Option A is to coach a hand-picked all-star team, players of distinction with name recognition, like Terry Bradshaw, Lynn Swann, Johnny Unitas and Earl Campbell - and current ones like Tom Brady and Adam Vinatieri. You could sit back, relax, and just watch them win. All you’d have to do is plan the Super Bowl victory party!

"Option B would be an opportunity to coach a team of, how shall I say it, misfits, athletes not quite in their prime, not as skilled or talented as the first team. These players want to play but have name recognition only with their mothers, not with football fans. They know the rules, but come up short in execution. These players might catch the ball and run toward the wrong goal and think they are actually scoring for their team.

“But these players have the drive to win. With hard work and constant drill, coaxing, convincing, and above all, leadership, there’s a chance they might be groomed into winning. If you are committed to working with them, you might surprise the world.

“Now,” I asked the students, “which team would you rather coach?”

The overwhelming response was Option B: this team presented a challenge for the coach while Option A did not. If you’re going to invest time and effort, you want the satisfaction that you made a difference. If you believe in your squad and are willing to put up with them, you’ll see amazing results.

As I scanned the room and saw that the students were with me right up to this point, I prepared to leap into our discussion.

“Imagine you are G-d, and you want to coach a team, or, in G-d’s terms, you want to create a world.

“You already have a dream team; they’re called angels. Angels don’t fight, don’t harm each other, and don’t get sick. They’re perfect angels. But it’s no challenge to ‘coach’ angels. So G-d created humans, you, me, and all people in the world, and gave us a game plan how to become champions. We might not get all the plays right, sometimes we think we’re doing the right thing, but end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. We often stumble, fail, and lose. Yet when we manage to overcome the setbacks and touch the divine love and light within, we really score.”

I may not have covered all the facts and figures about a 4,000-year religion in 30 minutes, but I hopefully gave them something to think about next Sunday afternoon to help them kick off right for the rest of their lives.

Courtesy of chabad.org