16th Annual PBI
Eric Horowitz - The 16th annual PBI is here, and all the talk is about a unique quirk in the calendar. No, we're not in the midst of one of those magical stretches where Tu Bishvat falls on MLK Day two years in a row. This year’s excitement concerns the fusion of rabbinic Judaism's most commercialized holiday and the Puritan tradition of Thanksgiving. It's a rare occurrence, like a JDS athlete getting press in the Rockville Gazette. (By the way, if you Google "Rockville Jewish Athletes" the JDS website is the top result. That’s some well-spent SEO money. And since I'm on the subject of JDS, athletics, and journalism -- this happened.)
The primary consequence of this week’s double-simcha is more fodder for vacuous small talk among culturally ignorant co-workers, but the once-in-a-lifetime situation also brings up an important question. It’s a conundrum that was often pondered by the JDS board of directors as it attempted to legislate a homework policy for Chol HaMoed: What makes a special occasion special?
For an event like Thanksgiving dinner, the presence of rituals that span generations offers an obvious answer. But for a recently conceived affair like the PBI, significance can be harder to recognize or articulate. One reason for this is that the game's meaning is rapidly evolving, much like your grade's “best looking" rankings during the developmentally tumultuous bar- and bat-mitzvah years.
Initially, the core emotional element of the PBI emerged from a shared history. While the gathering has always had its official altruistic purposes, the subtext was that it was an event where the people and places we'd all previously known could be vividly brought to mind. It was a chance to inhabit the past, and without the awkwardness of sauntering into an alumni networking happy hour to beg somebody you sat next to in minyan to hire your new event planning consulting firm.
But as we roll into year 16, the past we once shared fades further into the background. Instead, something more powerful has sprouted up in place of the old, largely circumstantial connections. Like the French miners in Emile Zola's Germinal -- who evolved from co-workers to co-revolutionaries -- the PBI community has grown into something more. There's now 16 years of new relationships, memories, and traditions, a vast philanthropic footprint, and a shiny website to tie it all together.
So what makes the PBI a special occasion? Unlike the inert cultural traditions that create fertile ground for department store sales or $18 checks from your bubby, each PBI alters and augments what took place the year before. When you show up on that field you help shape a burgeoning institution, and once we create a proper PBI fantasy football challenge and locate a sportsbook in Macao that will take wagers on the game, you'll have even more ways to be a part of it.
The calendar that surrounds the 16th PBI serves up a uniqueness that paradoxically feels wholly generic. Holidays come and go, then come and go again, sometimes on different days, but almost always in the same manner. The PBI serves as a reminder that the most special occasions may be those that are being built before our very eyes.
Eric Horowitz - The 16th annual PBI is here, and all the talk is about a unique quirk in the calendar. No, we're not in the midst of one of those magical stretches where Tu Bishvat falls on MLK Day two years in a row. This year’s excitement concerns the fusion of rabbinic Judaism's most commercialized holiday and the Puritan tradition of Thanksgiving. It's a rare occurrence, like a JDS athlete getting press in the Rockville Gazette. (By the way, if you Google "Rockville Jewish Athletes" the JDS website is the top result. That’s some well-spent SEO money. And since I'm on the subject of JDS, athletics, and journalism -- this happened.)
The primary consequence of this week’s double-simcha is more fodder for vacuous small talk among culturally ignorant co-workers, but the once-in-a-lifetime situation also brings up an important question. It’s a conundrum that was often pondered by the JDS board of directors as it attempted to legislate a homework policy for Chol HaMoed: What makes a special occasion special?
For an event like Thanksgiving dinner, the presence of rituals that span generations offers an obvious answer. But for a recently conceived affair like the PBI, significance can be harder to recognize or articulate. One reason for this is that the game's meaning is rapidly evolving, much like your grade's “best looking" rankings during the developmentally tumultuous bar- and bat-mitzvah years.
Initially, the core emotional element of the PBI emerged from a shared history. While the gathering has always had its official altruistic purposes, the subtext was that it was an event where the people and places we'd all previously known could be vividly brought to mind. It was a chance to inhabit the past, and without the awkwardness of sauntering into an alumni networking happy hour to beg somebody you sat next to in minyan to hire your new event planning consulting firm.
But as we roll into year 16, the past we once shared fades further into the background. Instead, something more powerful has sprouted up in place of the old, largely circumstantial connections. Like the French miners in Emile Zola's Germinal -- who evolved from co-workers to co-revolutionaries -- the PBI community has grown into something more. There's now 16 years of new relationships, memories, and traditions, a vast philanthropic footprint, and a shiny website to tie it all together.
So what makes the PBI a special occasion? Unlike the inert cultural traditions that create fertile ground for department store sales or $18 checks from your bubby, each PBI alters and augments what took place the year before. When you show up on that field you help shape a burgeoning institution, and once we create a proper PBI fantasy football challenge and locate a sportsbook in Macao that will take wagers on the game, you'll have even more ways to be a part of it.
The calendar that surrounds the 16th PBI serves up a uniqueness that paradoxically feels wholly generic. Holidays come and go, then come and go again, sometimes on different days, but almost always in the same manner. The PBI serves as a reminder that the most special occasions may be those that are being built before our very eyes.
