Jeremy Lin knocked Tu’B’shvat off the front pages of world media. In the past fortnight, the Jeremy Lin tale has been on the lips of President Obama and China’s President-in-Waiting. A reporter of The New York Times interviewed his grandmother in Taiwan, and Time Magazine made him its cover story. Aish compared his story to Samuel’s annointing of David as king, the runt of Jesse’s litter of children, NY Jewish Week pondered Lin’s menschiness and fervent religiosity, Commentary Magazine his handshake, and Modell’s ordered nearly 200,000 LinTastic and Lin #17 t shirts and jerseys. PaperMagazine went with a shirtless pic of the star; while Pocono kabbalists are hard at work figuring out how the number “17” (“Tov” or Aleph Chet Chet in Hebrew) will bring us closer to endtimes.
And what about Jewlicious? How can we jump on this Lintastic bandwagon?
I got nothing.
Except for a letter I received from a reader. They are going to a Knicks game and wanted to get Lin, the Harvard grad and current media darling, a gift. Did I have Any suggestions?
Yes, actually, I do. Lin, who had been sleeping on his brother’s (an NYU dental student) Lower East Side couch before heading to new posh digs in White Plains, naps and reads the bible before each basketball game. Therefore, as a gift, I suggest you buy this future pastor one of these three books: (1) Sermons: Biblical Wisdom For Daily Living by the late Reverend Peter J. Gomes, who was the famed Pusey Minister at Harvard, and followed by many Jewish students who enjoyed his sermons and public speaking (BTW – his replacement is still being determined, and Harvard Hillel’s Orthodox Jewish advisor is helping make the selection); (2) The Jewish Annotated New Testament by Professor Amy-Jill Levine (Vanderbilt) and Marc Z. Brettler (Brandeis) on the Jewish aspects of the New Testament and its Jewish figures, including Jesus, Peter, Paul, Mary, James, and Mary Magdalene; and (3) Kosher Chinese by Mike Levy, currently a Brooklynite, about his work in Western China as a member of the U.S. Peace Corp. While there, Levy, who studied briefly in Israel, played basketball for a Chinese college and started his school’s Jewish Friendship and Friday Night Sabbath club.
Good luck at the game.
Maybe now someone can write an extremely lyrical and poetic essay about how Jesse Eisenberg is really half Estonian, a quarter Dutch-Irish, and a quarter Pomak, and get him out of our hair.
Number of years Joseph lived with Jacob before being sold: 17
Number of years Jacob lived with Joseph in Goshen: 17
Jeremy Lin’s Number for the NY Knicks: 17
Is there a drash somewhere in this? I don’t know
I go for #2. The Amy-Jill Levine book looks fascinating.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/sports/a-jewish-american-hockey-player-at-historys-indelible-crossroad.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=jewish%20hockey&st=cse
Actor Jesse Eisenberg wrote an extremely lyrical and well crafted parody/essay for McSweeney’s on why Jeremy Lin is Jewish and a rabbinical student. But Jeremy WWJD Lin is not Jewish.
If you need your Jewish althlete fix… read the link above from yesterday’s New York Times. It is the story of a Jewish American hockey player who his seeking success in Germany