Thanks, Tom! - CHRONICLE Online/The WORD 08/14/25

Weekly On-line Rabbi's D'var-Torah

August 16, 2025

22 Av 5785

Parashat Eikev

Sports allegiances are a funny thing.  I haven’t lived in my hometown of Detroit for over 35 years, but I’m still a Detroit sports fan.  That’s just who I am.

On the flip side, when you’ve never liked a team, it’s hard to change your long-time feelings about them.  For example, Robert Kraft – the owner of the New England Patriots – is one of the most generous pro-Israel and pro-Judaism philanthropists in the world.  Former Patriot Julian Edelman is one of the few NFL players in recent years who identifies as Jewish.  And Tom Brady – the long-time star of the Patriots – went to the University of Michigan which is my favorite college football team.  Despite all those reasons for me to like them, I can stand the Patriots.  Go figure!  It think it’s safe to say that their former coach Bill Belichik may have had something to do with them being so unlikeable.

In any event, my feelings about the Patriots were really put to the test this week when they held a ceremony to unveil a statue of Tom Brady outside their football stadium.  Brady himself appeared at this event wearing a small blue pin created by the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, which was established by Robert Kraft.

Wearing a physical symbol to express solidarity with the Jewish community is no small thing.  In this week’s Torah portion, we read the middle paragraph of the Sh’ma in its original location – Deuteronomy 11.  In that passage, we read: “Therefore impress these, My words, upon your very heart; bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead (Deuteronomy 11:18).”  This is one of four places in the Bible that instructs Jews to wear phylacteries or tefillin.  We are supposed to wear physical reminders of our commitment to God’s ways.  

According to the Torah, it's not enough to simply commit internally to God’s commandments.  We must publicly show everyone around us how serious we are about this commitment by wearing tefillin – small boxes with the words of God within them – next to our hearts and next to our brains.  

That’s the kind of statement that Tom Brady made this week.  He could have thought to himself that people already know that he has a Jewish brother-in-law (former Boston Red Sox player Kevin Youkilis).  He could have assumed that his fans know he’s good friends with Julian Edelman.  He could have considered his trip to Israel with Robert Kraft enough proof that he is opposed to antisemitism.  But, he didn’t.  Instead, he wore that blue pin to a very public event where he was the center of attention.  

I can’t get in his brain.  So, I don’t know what motivated him to do it.  However, it was a great act of allyship with the Jewish community.

What do you do when someone from the wrong team whom you’ve never really liked does something that you really appreciate?  

You say, “Thank you.” 

RAF