Does this story make Judaism look stupid or smart?
It reminds me of the institution of the Shabbos goy (a Gentile who does thing for a Jew on Shabbos that Jewish law forbids a Jew to do, such as turn on a light). How dumb do we make Torah look when we ask goyim to do things for us on Shabbos? Did the workers at the Costa Mesa Hilton think Judaism was smart or dumb when we asked them to open our doors etc on Shabbos?
The Bible says the Torah is supposed to make the Jews look wise in the eyes of goyim.
As cheering crowds welcomed the victorious New York Giants back from Arizona during a tickertape parade through the streets of Manhattan, at least one diehard fan thought he had the answer to the question on everyone’s minds: How did the Giants beat football’s winningest team in perhaps the biggest Super Bowl upset of all time?
Jay Greenfield, 49, said the key to the Giants’ 17-14 win over the then-undefeated New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII had a little bit more to it than mere touchdowns, yards rushed or tackles. An intense Giants fan since the age of 6 – that’s about three years before the first Super Bowl saw the Green Bay Packers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10 – he said with confidence that his putting on tefillin three times a week since early on in the season helped shift the odds in his home team’s favor.
Back in the fall, Greenfield had grown despondent over his beloved Giants’ 0-2 start before going into the Sept. 23 showdown over the archrival Washington Redskins. The Giants had gone 1-3 in the preseason and were trounced by the Packers and the Dallas Cowboys in the regular season’s first two games.
Two days before the big game – the Friday before Yom Kippur – good friend Rabbi Yisroel Shemtov had stopped by to get Greenfield to put on tefillin, a regular practice since the Chabad-Lubavitch chassid met Greenfield several years ago. The football fan was oddly reluctant.
"I had very high expectations and hopes for my Giants," said Greenfield, partner with his brother Tod Greenfield in Martin Greenfield Clothing. "I told the rabbi that we had already lost our first two games and another loss would mean the end of our year! This tefillin routine was not working for my Giants and, therefore, not working for me."
Ever the deal-maker, Shemtov hatched a plan: If Greenfield would promise to put tefillin on three times a week, the rabbi would do what he could for a little intercession from Above for the Giants to beat Washington.
Sure enough, when they faced off against the Redskins, the Giants made a great defensive stand in the second half to come from behind and win, 24-17. They went on to finish the season in second place, winning an NFC wildcard berth in the playoffs.
"We came to an understanding," said Greenfield, "that I would keep up the three-times-a-week ritual if the Giants would remain in the playoff race."
And win they did, beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 24-14, then the Cowboys, 21-17, and, finally, the Packers, 23-20 in overtime.
Greenfield was at the Giants-Bucs game in Tampa, Florida, with 10 other friends, and had a surprise for Shemtov when he called him from the stadium. "Rabbi, I put on tefillin with everyone in our group," he said that he informed Shemtov.
At a tailgating party Greenfield arranged at a friend’s house for the game against the Cowboys, Shemtov and his son-in-law, Rabbi Yossi Deren, co-director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Greenwich, Conn., spent an hour and a half putting tefillin on everybody.
For the following week’s NFC Championship Game, the Greenfield brothers affixed mezuzahs, boxes containing scriptural passages described in the Torah, to their front doors. And once again, Shemtov, joined by three new helpers, put tefillin on all the men at Kenny Ryman’s house in Roslyn, N.Y.
The rest is history, of course: A 47-yard field goal in overtime punched the Giants’ ticket to Arizona and the Super Bowl.
"I do not know if putting on tefillin and reciting the Shema helped the Giants win," said David Katz, who was at both playoff parties. "It certainly helped all of us pull together and root for a common goal."
Greenfield said that before the Super Bowl he and his friends put on tefillin in their hotel lobby before driving to the stadium.
Tod Greenfield added that even non-Jewish friends of his chalked the big win up to the tefillin.
"Tod’s forehead prayer definitely worked," read one e-mail from a friend.
"An amazing win," read another. "Your prayer worked on me, usually a Pats fan. I was rooting for the Giants from the kickoff."
