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Is there a need for a sports section in the heimishe newspapers, or at least a update column?
What do you think?
Why not? Though i have no interest in it myself other ppl like to read it over their morning coffee. All different kinds of ppl read the newspapers…
Pulled into what? Playing sports? That’s good. Following professional sports? Not so good.
Its a public newspaper, not a kids magazine. Who is it catering to? If the parents are concerned about their kids, they should pull out that section!
Ben Torah is basically right. It is good to play sports and there is no reason why shomer Shabat teams and players should not be covered in Jewish newspapers. For example, there is a shomer Shabat Little League in my neighborhood, many Orthodox high schools play other Orthodox high schools in sports, and Yeshiva University even has some teams that play in NCAA Division III which is the “play for fun” division. But the near-worship of professional athletes in secular society at best reflects misplaced values and may even reward bad conduct.
Speaking of competition, there is a popular television series in many locales called “It’s Academic” in which high school kids compete to see which school’s best students can best answer questions about science, history, math, literature, and so on. Why not an “It’s Torah” competition in which students are quizzed on their knowledge of Tanakh, Mishnah, Gemara, and Machsheva? Because girls’s schools have such a different curriculum, we could have separate competitions for the girls. Sports are good, but Torah is even better!
charlie, when I went to summer camp they all had a version of that.
The frum lifestyle begs for the inclusion of physical activity (perhaps in the form of sports) at least 3 times a week. I dont think walking 10 minutes to a kiddush where fressing on cake, chulent, kishka, gala and 4 types of herring counts as excercise. Neither does the leisurely stroll back home.
Charlie, there is Chidon Tanach for that.
Kevin Youkilis.
I vaguely remember a thread on this in the past…
a yid in sports. ike davis
There are lots of Jews who have been successful in sports. Prof. Gurock at YU even wrote a book about them! But almost none have been shomer Shabat and the way the sports industry is set up it would be almost impossible for a successful athlete to keep Shabat. We should encourage our young people to emulate those who are successful in what they do and keep HaShem’s commandments.
Some very notable examples of that are US Senator Joe Lieberman; Cantor Dudu Fisher who was a cantor before he became a Broadway star — and had his Broadway debut delayed for years because he would not under any circumstances perform on Shabat; the great novelist Herman Wouk whose shipmates in World War II attributed their ship’s survival of a Japanese kamikaze attack to “Lt. Wouk’s magic black boxes” he would put on every morning; Prof. Robert Aumann, the graduate of the Rabbi Jacob Joseph Yeshiva who won a Nobel Prize in Economics; Michael Mukasey, the Ramaz School graduate who served as a federal judge and US Attorney General; and Howard Jonas, the founder of a telecom company who has given millions to tzedakah and set up a beit midrash in his corporate headquarters. And these are just some of the folks who were successful in the non-Jewish world; imagine the number of great rabbis and teachers who can also serve as models for us. Why encourage our young people to emulate sports figures when we have these kind of great examples?
Tamir Goodman, a frum kids out of Baltimore made to college basketball but eventually left. He kept true to frumkeit all the way through and is a great role model for kids if they want to get involved in sports.
Tamir also had the opportunity to play for a better school, but turned it down because they refused to respect his Shabbos schedule.
Goodman played professionally in Israel, but has now retired because of injuries.
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