Eli Manning and the Super Bowl champion Giants seem like a distant memory. Just a couple of weeks ago they were the toast of the town, paraded down the legendary "canyon of heroes" in a ticker tape parade. Just when many thought that there would be nothing left to cheer for until opening day of the baseball season, along came New York Knicks rookie sensation Jeremy Lin, and turned the sports world on its head.

Just in case some of you have been stranded on a desert island for the past couple of weeks, let me fill you in on who exactly Jeremy Lin is. Recently, Lin, a graduate of Harvard (not particularly known as a feeder school for the NBA), was cut by a couple of teams that apparently didn't think he had the makings of a successful professional basketball player. The Knicks picked him up off of waivers, whereupon he was quickly relegated to the position of benchwarmer. All of that changed when Knicks starting point guard, superstar Carmelo Anthony, was injured, leaving the Knicks with no other choice but to give Jeremy Lin a shot. As they say, "the rest is history". The Knicks went on to win seven consecutive games, and they now look like serious playoff contenders, instead of the basement-dwellers they seemed to be for the first part of the season. Basketball fans – locally, nationally, and globally – have been gripped with what has become known as "Linsanity", making a seat at a Knicks game the hottest ticket in town.

Many a sports pundit has mused over the "Linmania" phenomenon, trying to understand the public's fascination with this "Linderella" story. Is it the fact that he's the first Asian-American in years to make it in the NBA? Is it the fact that he's gone from obscurity to stardom in what seems like a “New York minute”? I believe that Knicks head coach, Mike D'Antoni, summed it up when he said, "The thing that you can't teach is what he has inside, his heart. You just can't teach that, and he has it. His brain, his heart, it's huge."  Fans just love it when a Mr. Anybody comes along, dreaming of playing in the NBA, gets a chance to shine, and then just runs with it, making a believer out of everyone. And Jeremy Lin does it without a lot of the typical bravado that we've come to expect from today's star athletes, instead showing how far hard work, determination, and most importantly, a lot of heart and enthusiasm, can take you.

There's a parallel idea in this week's Torah portion, Terumah, in which the recently liberated slave nation of Jews received a Divine order to construct the Tabernacle, a magnificent dwelling-place for the presence of G-d. A close examination of the details of this project might lead one to believe that it would require the services of an army of the most highly-skilled and trained artisans and craftsmen to get this job done. Yet, the team that was summoned to accomplish this task was the persecuted and downtrodden Jewish nation, people who had no prior background or experience doing this type of work. What did G-d, their Head Coach, see in them, that perhaps no one else could, that motivated Him to put them into the game in this big spot? The verse ( Exodus 25:2) tells us that the donation of the materials necessary for the Tabernacle came from "every person whose heart motivates them" and the work itself was carried out by   "every person whose heart inspired him....and everyone whose spirit motivated him" (35:21). Nachmanides explains that this refers to people who, though unskilled, were ready and willing to do whatever it took to get the job done, because they believed in the mission and were willing to give their heart and soul to see to it that it got done.

Whether it's on the basketball court, in the workplace, the spiritual realm, or anywhere else in life, the key to stardom is not always dependent on one's raw talent, experience, and ability. Sometimes it's intangible qualities such as commitment, determination and dedication that actually enable us to be the real "Linners" in life.