Mamash

Las Vegas has picked the New England Patriots as the 3-point favorites to win the Super Bowl. Their reasons include the Pats better season, a decade of winning, quarterback Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick.

Who do you pick to win?

Not an easy question, as the last matchup demonstrated, when the Giants won one of the biggest upsets in football history. Victory doesn’t always go to the favorite.

What does it take to win?

The Torah has some suggestions. They can be found in its own Giant vs. Patriot matchup, in the story of Goliath and David.

The story begins with David, a shepherd and the youngest of 8 brothers who, at his father’s request, comes to bring food to his three brothers who are serving in Israelite army. Upon arriving at the camp David sees Goliath, the champion of the enemy Philistine forces, nine feet tall, bedecked in armor, the iron head of his spear alone weighing 15 pounds. Quite a fearsome picture, don’t you think?

Upon hearing Goliath’s challenge to the Israelite army to choose one man to fight him in a ‘winner take all’ match, David tells Saul, the Israelite king: “Let no man’s courage fail him. Your servant will go and fight that Philistine.”

Courage. It takes courage to win.

Saul attempts to give David his own fighting gear, helmet, breastplate and sword with which to go out and meet the adversary girded for battle; but David declines saying, “I cannot walk in these for I am not used to them.” Instead, David picks a few small stones, and sling in hand goes to meet Goliath. David, the shepherd, goes to meet Goliath as a simple shepherd.

Play your own game. It takes knowing yourself, to win. It takes not letting others tell you what you ‘should’ do, what you ‘should’ wear, or how you ‘should’ act.

When Goliath sees David coming toward him he scorns him and says: “Am I a dog that you come against me with sticks?” David retorts: “I will kill you…”

Confidence. It takes confidence to win, even–and especially–in the face of trash talk.

As Goliath advances, David takes out a single stone and slings it—hitting Goliath squarely in the forehead. Goliath falls, face down on to the ground. So the Torah tells us: “Thus David bested the Philistine with sling and stone.”

Tactics. It takes a strategic and thoughtful approach to win.

David may have felled his Goliath, but we all have our own: those things and those people we have to confront, sometimes even within ourselves. Courage. Confidence. Thoughtfulness. And most importantly, authenticity. That is the Torah’s prescription for success.

Who knows, maybe it could even work for the Giants….