THE CABALA OF FOOTBALL

NFL legend Junior Seau was found dead at his home; Seau chose to shoot himself in the chest, as have several NFL players who recently killed themselves in a similar fashion; new studies appear to connect football-related concussions to suicidal behavior.

Although suicide is forbidden in the Torah, there are heroic instances like the community in Masada, Israel 2000 years ago when the people preferred to death to being captured and enslaved by the Roman army. People die to be free because freedom is more important than life.

Football, in a strange way, exemplifies freedom – commentators always describe a player as getting free; perhaps our fascination with the game stems from a deep rooted desire within each person to be free – to be able to take the hit and keep running, never stop or give up.

The Talmud-Book of Law tells a story about a laundryman who heard a voice from heaven saying, Whoever goes to the funeral of Rebbe Yehuda (who was the first to commit the Oral Torah into writing) gets Olam Haba/The Next World – the ultimate reward for living a good life.

The man got involved in his laundry and forgot to go; he was so despondent, he threw himself from the roof and died – another voice from heaven said, He also gets Olam Haba. When hearing of a person’s death it is the custom to say, Barauch Dian HaEmet/God is the True Judge.

Suicide’s Reward

Nicholas Hughes, the son of poet Sylvia Plath, has killed himself, 46 years after his mother committed suicide and almost 40 years to the day after his stepmother, Assia Wevill, did the same. He was 47.

Suicide is the spilling of one’s own blood thereby cutting short the time given by the Creator to conduct life on earth. Life on earth is different from life in heaven where the consciousness reunites with the soul; on the earth, and only on the earth, there is freedom of choice—in the heavens too much light exists and therefore no choice.

Although suicide is prohibited in the Torah/Teaching, still there are instances where suicide is considered the proper response—for example, if one is confronted with idol worship death, it is preferable to die. But, there is a price to suicide beyond death and that is the imprint on life which is left between parent and child and even from those not directly related as seen form this sad poetic story of those too sensitive for life.

In the Cabala, in particular the Sefer Gilgilim/Book of Reincarnations, much is written about the journeys of the soul—most importantly, the impossibility of escaping this physical world or our spiritual obligation.