Rav Zeff Leff has responded to the video clip that went viral, showing him engrossed in learning while at the Israel vs Scotland soccer match last Tuesday.
Rav Leff, the Rov of Moshav Matisyahu in Eretz Yisroel, explained he was in Scotland to visit his married daughter and grandchildren. It was the last night of his stay, and his grandchildren requested that their grandparents come and spend the time with them.
Rav Leff added that a group of people from the Frum community and the Rov of the local Shul were also attending the game, and it was a source of Jewish pride to be supporting the Israeli national team.
He also explained that he feels there is a difference between attending a soccer game in Eretz Yisroel versus around the world, with the Chareidi community in Israel understandably needing to maintain clear boundaries between themselves and the secular but Jewish society.
Rav Leff’s son-in-law, Rabbi Yossi Bodenheim, works as a campus rabbi for the University Jewish Chaplaincy, helping draw young Jews closer and remain connected to Yiddishkeit. The couple was accompanying a group of Jewish students from Scotland to the game, and Rav Leff and his Rebbitzen went along to support their children in the exceptional Kiruv work they do.
Rav Leff says that his main reason for going to the game was because his grandchildren really wanted to spend more time with him.
Rav Leff brought along his sefer, (a Gemara Talmud Yerushalmi) and continued learning during the match.
Israel had just taken a 1-0 lead. “I think he missed the goal,” said the surprised announcer. “Must be a good read!” he added.
Israel wound up losing 3-2 in the match, a qualifier for the Euro 2020 tournament.
Rav Leff teaches and lectures regularly at English-speaking Yeshivas, girls’ schools, and other institutions in Israel, as well as in England, South Africa and the United States.
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8 Responses
Thank you, Rav Leff for this interview.
If for nothing else, the manner in which you, as a rav, speak to people.. Humble, matter-of-fact, non-patronizing, respecting the audience … just a great listen..
And if I may, thanks for your thoughts in “To Dwell in the Palace” book, edited by Ms Ehrlich-Klein.
Very inspiring.
Incredibly simple yet elegant schmuz to the tzibur explaining his actions in terms we can all relate to. Also makes the crucial point that is lost so frequently among the “machmir everything” crowd that there is room for flexibility in our daily lives on matters that are meaningful to those we really care about (in this case, his grandchildren) without crossing a bright line on something that is unquestionably assur under halacha. As noted above, I don’t think is a big Kiddush hashem…just a chashuvah rav showing us by his actions how a ben torah can function in a contemporary world where everything is not black and white but rather shades of grey.
Gadolhadorah, if “a chashuvah rav showing us by his actions how a ben torah can function in a contemporary world” according to the highest standards of Torah and Hashkafah is not a Kiddush Hashem, then what is?
One morning Rav Chaim Pinchos Sheinberg Ztzl made a ‘lechaim’ after shacharis. When they asked him ‘what was the occasion?’- he told them “I just heard that the Yankies won/lost a game -and for the first time- after many years of avodah I realised it now doesn’t interest me in the slightest, -I feel it’s fitting to make a leChaim!” Apparently when he was younger he was quite a hitter and earned the nickname ‘lefty Sheinberg’…….
Yes, Rav Sheinberg was special.
Reminds of a Rav Finkel ZT”I story, that not long before his petirah, he said that
he didn’t think he’ll see his team, the Cubs, ever win a World Series.
They won the next year.
The game has changed, I’m not that interested in it so much myself anymore…….Except I still don’t want Yankees to win.
Mobico….I am among a very small minority here in the CR who believes the term “kiddush hashem” has been hijacked and devalued to describe a seemingly endless number of anecdotes and behaviors that while admirable and worthy of mention don’t rise to the mesiras nefesh (literrally and figuratively) of what is a true kiddush hashem. In the latter category are the kadoshim who were niftar during the Shoah and their peers throughout generations of our history. I guess its my own personal hangup, but I cannot get my mind around the notion that attending a football game in Glasgow (albeit while learning gemoah), or a subsequent commentary explaining the viral video thereof, as a “kiddush hashem”.
Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel was nifter in 2011. Cubs won the world series in 2016.
Reb Dons:
Rav Scheinberg ZT”L received the nickname “lefty” because, by his own admission, he was an excellent handball player when he lived on the Lower East Side.