What Rabbi Berland Thought About When Playing Basketball in His Youth • Shabbos Class on Parshas Shmini

Here is the full class:

The Difference Between the Golden Calf and the Oneness of Hashem

Then the Golden Calf would shout: "I am Hashem your God... You shall have no other gods" (Shemos 20:2-3). The Zohar says on page 192 that the calf would shout "I am" and "You shall have no other." All the idols that they made would shout "I am" and "You shall have no other." Even the calves of Jeroboam would shout "I am" and "You shall have no other," and they suspended them in the air. And therefore, in the reading of the Shema, we say "Hashem is One" (Devarim 6:4). Why don't we say "I am" and "You shall have no other," which is from the Ten Commandments? Because all the idols, all the gods, would shout "I am" and "You shall have no other," so people would say that every god cares for its own nation—there is the god of Ammon, the god Chemosh—each one cares for its own nation. Therefore, we say "Hashem is One," meaning there is no god besides Hashem. This is all written here in the Zohar 192b. He brings this from the Book of Enoch (Sifra D'Chanoch). There is a Book of Enoch, why don't we have the book? We need to tell Yossi Mann to print it. And he also brings here from the Reisha Chivara—the White Head. Who is the White Head? Aharon HaKohen is the White Head.

Moshe Shaved the Beard and Peyos of Aharon and the Leviim

And I will tell you what they did to Aharon HaKohen: Moshe shaved his beard and peyos (sidelocks), for him and for all the Leviim. Bring the Torah portion of Behaaloscha and the Gemara in Sanhedrin. And he threw them in the air like kneidlach (dumplings), like a ball in the air—twenty-two thousand Leviim! He threw each one in a single second, throwing them in the air within six hours—twenty-two thousand. Because in a day there are 86,400 seconds—that is in 24 hours; in 12 hours it is 43,200; divide by two—which is six hours—so 21,600. So in six hours, Moshe threw 22,000 Leviim in the air like a ping-pong ball.

What Did the Rav Think About in Basketball?

I used to play basketball when I was a young man, and for every basket I scored, I would say, "Hashem is the God" (Melachim I 18:39), until I said that it is better for me to put Gemara into this basket (pointing to his head); so I went to put Gemara into this basket (pointing to his head).

Then his wife (Korach's wife) asked him: "What did Moshe do to you? He shaved your beard? Is it permissible to shave a beard?" She was a zealot; she was a Satmar. So he said to her: "He also shaved our beards, and made himself king, and made Aharon the Kohen Gadol (High Priest), and his sons the deputies; and he shaved our beards, and he threw us like a kufta (ball), like kneidlach." Kufta—that is kneidlach in Yiddish. Rashi here in Sanhedrin 110a says that kufta is dung. What is dung? On page 98b, Ulla said: "Let him (Mashiach) come, but let me not see him," and Rav Yosef said: "Let him come, and let me sit in the shadow of his donkey's dung (kufta)." So the Gemara says: "in the shadow of his donkey's dung," meaning that he prefers to sit in the shadow of the donkey's dung (just to merit experiencing the days of Mashiach).