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Rabbi Samuel Chiel, of blessed memory, used to say: the Jewish people are not superstitious\\u2026kenahorah.

Recently I was an eyewitness to the birth, the thriving, and the death of a superstition\\u2026kenahora.

It happened in our evening minyan in the Gann Chapel, and it concerned the seating arrangement of two of our evening minyan regulars, Grant Finkel and Lisa Hills. Every night Grant sits in the section to the left, facing the bimah, in the second row. Every night Lisa Hills sits in the section to the right, facing the bimah, in the first row. That is how it has been forever. But one night, for whatever reason, only God knows, Grant Finkel sat next to Lisa Hills in the first row of her section. He had never sat there before. And do you know what happened as a result?

I\\u2019ll tell you what happened. The Celtics won that night.

They were in the midst of a playoff series.\\xa0 Their play had been inconsistent.\\xa0 The previous game they had not played so well in the fourth quarter and lost.\\xa0 But the night that Grant sat next to Lisa, the Celtics won a tough game on the road.\\xa0 Obviously, they won because Grant sat where he sat.\\xa0

The next night, as folks walked into Gann at about 7:28, we said to Grant: sit next to Lisa again.\\xa0 He did. And the Celtics won again.

The next night, at 7:28, as folks walked in, Lisa and Grant came in as usual.\\xa0 But on this particular night Lisa\\u2019s husband Matt Hills also came in.\\xa0 We said to him: scram! You can\\u2019t sit next to your wife.\\xa0 The Celtics are playing!\\xa0 Sit a few seats away from your wife so that Grant\\u2019s magical powers continue to lift up the Celtics.\\xa0 Matt himself is a big Celtics fan.\\xa0 As it happens, that very night he was wearing a Celtics t-shirt.\\xa0 He happily complied. Grant sat next to Lisa. The Celtics won.

Then came the Miami series.\\xa0

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