There is much controversy in Israel surrounding soccer games, which are held on Shabbos. Regarding the little league games, some 30,000 children around Israel take part in the chilul Shabbos during the soccer season and there are growing calls to bring an end to Shabbos games. http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/338728/bayit-yehudi-mk-calls-on-deri-not-to-permit-shabbos-soccer-games.html
President Reuven Rivlin commented on the controversy on Wednesday, 25 Elul, referring to calls from the heads of the little league to permit games on Shabbos, turning to Economy Minister Aryeh Deri to give the required permit.
President Rivlin told Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) “I think that the custom of the Israeli tzibur is to go to shul on Shabbos and then head to Katamon or Teddy [Stadium for soccer matches]”.
“We cannot create situations without broad agreement, for these are matters habit, a status quo. We mustn’t do anything that will harm on tzibur at the expense of another”.
The president also used the interview to disclose the breakdown in relations with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, citing they have not met for two months. “I meet with the prime minister privately on a regular basis once monthly, but in the past two months, this did not occur”.
Commenting on the decision by the Mishkenos Yaakov Talmid Torah in Ramot to shun his planned presidential visit on the first day of school, President Rivlin stated “Israeli society has a number of groups that can agree with you for as long as your agree to everything from A to Z. In these unique groups there is a problem. I understand and respect the wishes of each school but I do not have to agree with them”.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
““We cannot create situations without broad agreement, for these are matters habit, a status quo. We mustn’t do anything that will harm the tzibur at the expense of another”.
Oh, the poor creatures of habit! What about the habit of “Shamor/Zachor es yom hashabas??!!” That one is over 3,000 years old!!
I see the Apologist has a new “daas torah”. The Pope!
Hey ! He was once the General Manager of a soccer team!
What do you expect he will say?
As for us, positive societal change needs to be incremental
It’s really not Shabbosdik to go to a sporting event. More problematic is that for the players, people maintaining the stadium, etc. it really is a mundane job.