Two Minutes Warning

America's Super Bowl is upon us. Everything in the physical world, even the most mundane, at some level reflects a higher, spiritual reality. Is there anything that can bridge the gap between a secular activity like the Super Bowl (or for that matter, just a regular football game) and Judaism? In every football game, there's one time where everything changes, not only the strategy and the match-ups, but even the rules! That's the last two minutes of the game.After the two-minute warning, the game changes. Coaches can no longer challenge a ruling, when the clock is stopped or started and other rules gets modified - just because the game has reached the two-minute warning.
Just the fact that there is a two-minute warning indicates how unique the time period is. Action stops, just like at the end of a quarter or at half-time. Both sides regroup.
And the pace changes - if the score is close. The team that's losing tries to hurry up on offense - the so-called two-minute offense. Quick passes. Get out of bounds to stop the clock. Use the time-outs wisely.
The team that's winning tries to slow things down. Make the other team waste a time-out.
And on defense the winning team tries to prevent the "big play," the long completion or the game-winner. Don't let them into field goal range.
The defense on the losing team tries to get off the field as fast as possible.
And therein lies a lesson for us all. For as we get closer to the times of Moshiach, as the "game" approaches the "two minute warning," the rules do indeed change, and our strategy changes as well.
Aspects of Judaism that might not have seemed as urgent 200 or 2,000 years ago, become more urgent. Hence we see an increase in recent years - an increase in Torah knowledge and study, an increase in mitzvot (commandment) observance, an increased concern for the welfare of others, an increased emphasis on love for a fellow Jew.
And in our personal lives, we have also reached the "two minute warning," a time of urgency.
But we have to ask ourselves: Are we playing defense or offense? Are we winning or losing?
Our opponent, of course, is our own yetzer hara (evil inclination). And in some games, we have the lead. So we need to slow down the pace when we're on offense - pay more attention to the details of the mitzva, spend a little more time asking questions at a Torah class to make sure we really understand it in depth, make sure that food product has a reliable kosher symbol.
In some cases, we're behind. We need to play a "hurry-up" offense. We need to grab mitzvot, whenever we can. We need increase the speed of our learning - get cd's for the car, study online. We need to get involved with Jewish activities - Purim programs, soup kitchens, visiting the sick, whatever's going on in the community.
Even on defense, we have to know "how much time" is left, whether or not we have to prevent an encroachment - to make sure that the evil inclination doesn't sneak in by pretense - give charity, but not like you intended. Or we may have to attack the evil inclination up front - confront quickly the attacks on our concentration in prayer, for instance.
Whatever the circumstances, though, we need to recognize that now, in the era of the footsteps of Moshiach, we have reached the spiritual two-minute warning.