Rabbi's Chayva's Chat

Elections, Tisha B’Av, and the Olympics. What do they all have in common?

Each one of these events defines the boundaries of a tribe. Electoral tribalism pushes our society to separate by political affiliation and candidate loyalty. Tisha B’Av is the Jewish holiday that commemorates great tragedies that afflicted our people, from the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem to the expulsion from Spain. Tisha B’Av reinforces our collective grief over our suffering; on that day, we fast, act as mourners, and turn inward. (Note: Tisha B’Av will be on August 12-13.) The Olympics redraw tribal lines in several ways that sometimes contradict each other: nations compete against each other, but athletes and fans also affiliate with one another by sport.

As these lines of affinity and division reemerge this year, I was drawn back to Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion. He writes:

Individuals compete with individuals, and that competition rewards selfishness - which includes some forms of strategic cooperation. But at the same time, groups compete with groups, and that competition favors groups composed of true team players - those who are willing to cooperate and work for the good of the group, even when they could do better by slacking, cheating, or leaving the group. These two processes pushed human nature in different directions and gave us the strange mix of selfishness and selflessness that we know today. (Haidt, 222)

Haidt, a moral psychologist, captures the tension between pursuing the goals of one’s self versus those of one’s group. If one zooms out into the bigger picture, we see the tension between universalism - the connection and ethical obligation to all people - and particularism - the importance of preserving and elevating the needs of our own community. 

This has great implications for the progressive Jewish community, but to be frank, this week I see it most in the Olympics women’s soccer tournament! I saw it in the USA vs. Germany game, where fans from both teams sat together in the stands - I even saw a family in t-shirts with a half American, half German flag - more united by their love of soccer than by their love of international competition. I saw it in the U.S. Women’s National Team, when Korbin Albert came on the field, and even though her behavior on social media has implied homophobic views and caused tension within the team, they still celebrated her first goal in international competition. I saw it in Team Canada, whose assistant coaches were fired for spying on opponents’ practices with a drone, but whose fans and players rallied to overcome the 6 point penalty to make it to the knockout round, with the collective support of fans from other countries as well.

The beauty of the Olympics is in how it reorganizes our allegiances and reminds us of our shared humanity, all through the counterintuitive guise of cross-group competition. In this Olympics, may our best selves win.