Even if you aren’t a college sports fan, let alone a sports fan, you have to admit that the March Madness college basketball tournament can be pretty exciting. 68 teams in a do or die tournament with upsets up the wazoo? Count me in.
But March Madness is also great because it has inspired numerous non-basketball related tournament brackets for people to waste their time with. Anyone remember my Jewish Food Tourney from two years ago? It was epic.
This year though, I believe we’ve found ourselves the most ridiculous and dorky (also amazing) Jewish bracket ever. I introduce to you the Official Rabbi Madness Bracket.
Created by two students at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, this tournament pits the 64 greatest rabbis of all time up against each other in order to determine the greatest rabbi in the history of Judaism. There are four conferences, two “classical” and two “modern.” The #1 seeds are Rashi, Rambam, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and Mordecai Kaplan.
In order to determine who moves on in the tournament, the two students have created a podcast to discuss the merits of each rabbi. And in case you’re wondering, there have been some upsets, including, #10 Ramban defeating #7 Vilna Gaon, as well as #11 Isaac Klein defeating #6 Chofetz Chayim.
Here is the link to the podcast. It is only accessible through Facebook, however, you should be able to access it even if you do not have an account.
Full Disclaimer: This is the nerdiest thing of all time.
