This week cobras and cats, fire and hurricane united together to serve Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
I don't just mean that these forces united in the plagues of arov and barad in Parshat Va'era; the Kushner Kobras, Kohelet Kings, Maimonides M-Cats, Farber Fire, and HANC Hurricanes spent the beginning of this week and the end of last week joining together in Boston, on our Saval Campus, to study Torah together, daven together, and learn together — while also playing a few basketball games.
The Maimonides School Invitational Basketball Tournament, this year dedicated in memory of Gary Singer z”l, is a celebration of Jewish education and Torah study and a window into the future of the Jewish people. Athletes from five schools – helmed mostly by Maimonides alumni – gathered to spend a weekend together, along with many Maimonides School students, volunteers, and guests. As they studied Torah together with our Maimonides Fellows, davened together with our Maimonides Kehillah, and sang together, one could glimpse the next generation of future Jewish leaders joining together and celebrating their shared faith. Hearing the Hatikvah sung before the games was equally profound.
None of the visiting schools existed when Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik zt”l founded our school in 1937. But our school was established with a vision that has grown in the years since: Of young Jewish boys and girls growing to love Judaism, Torah study, and the sense of commitment and community that is often developed through sports.
We have much hakarat hatov for the tournament volunteers, including co-chairs Sheera (’76) and Ahron (’76) Solomont and E.B. Solomont (’97) and Phil Levy, the tournament sponsors including Rebecca and Jeffrey Singer, and all of the coaches and parents, first and foremost Hal Borkow, our athletic director for running a spectacular tournament, and the numerous Maimonides staff members who collaborated on the many details needed for the tournament to run.
For me, the highlight of the tournament wasn't seeing the packed stands of Early Childhood Center, Elementary School, Middle School, and Upper School students cheering on our athletes, and wasn't watching our varsity teams hoisting the banners of victory. The highlight was seeing a new generation of Jews uniting around enduring values: Israel, Jewish unity, and Jewish education.
In a famous 1978 essay, Rabbi Soloveitchik noted that at the start of this week’s parsha, our ancestors could not see past their animalistic, biological needs, and lacked the perception or voice to attend to their human and spiritual needs. The process of redemption includes a growing awareness of our aspirations and our faith. We may have begun the process of the Exodus as cobras and cats (see Rashi on Shemot 1:19), but we merge at the end into the Jewish people, awakened by the Torah and inspired to pray, as our nation continues on its march from exile to redemption. | 
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