Mordi Harush, a formerly Chareidi from a family in the Sanhedria area of Jerusalem, has become a professional bodybuilder who regularly enters competitions.
Despite this, he has announced via his Facebook page that he is withdrawing from a competition, which he describes as “my dream”, in order not to be Mechalel Shavuos.
In his post he writes: Father in Heaven, I am doing this for you. With difficulty, I am withdrawing on my dream and pulling out of the competition in Spain. The reason for this is the competition will take place on Shabbos, which is connected to Shavuos, on that Motzei Shabbos.
As one who is Shomer Shabbos, I felt my conscience and if I compete on Shabbos and Shavuos, the time of Matan Torah, as I planned to compete in the competition on Shabbos.”
Harush said, “I started to find all kinds of reasons for myself. I planned to take a hotel close to the competition so I would not have to travel by car on Shabbos, and basically I was not supposed to violate Shabbos physically, while competing in the competition is Chilul Shabbos. But the honor and glory of this competition woke me up…”
“What stopped me is Shavuos. I will not stand on the stage, during Matan Torah, while the people of Israel received the Torah. Thank you very much Father in Heaven as you opened my eyes…”
He stressed: “I know for sure that my salary in the sky will be huge because I gave up something I wanted so much to realize, after many years of hard work.”
The owner of the Power Gym Gymnasium in Jerusalem, where Harush trains, wrote on Facebook: “Mordi Harush is part of our charming team, but he is also our hero. A huge hero of the entire Jewish people! ”
אבא שבשמיים אני עושה את זה למענך🙏
בקושי רב אני מוותר על החלום שלי ,ואני מבטל את התחרות שלי בספרד 😥
הסיבה לכך זה שהתחרות אמורה להתקיים בשבת וזה מתחבר גם לחג שבועות שזה במוצאש , ,ופה התחיל לערער בי משהו בתור אחד ששומר שבת ,הרגשתי כבר מצפון אם אני יתחרה גם בשבת וגם בחג שבועות שזה זמן מתן תורה ,למרות שכן התכוונתי להתחרות בתחרות בשבת ,התחלתי למצוא לעצמי כל מיני סיבות תכננתי לקחת מלון קרוב לתחרות בשביל שאני לא יצטרך לנסוע ברכב בשבת ,ובעיקרון לא הייתי אמור לחלל שבת פיזית ,למרות שלהתחרות בשבת זה כן חילול שבת ,אבל הכבוד והתהילה של התחרות הזאת עיורו אותי..
אבל מה שעצר אותי זה החג שבועות, אני לא יעמוד על הבמה בתחתון בזמן מתן תורה בזמן שעם ישראל קיבל את התורה ..
תודה רבה אבא שבשמיים שפתחת לי את העיניים ..
אני יודע בוודאות שהשכר שלי בשמיים יהיה ענק על זה שויתרתי על משהו שכל כך רציתי להגשים אחרי הרבה שנים של עבודה קשה ..
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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18 Responses
kol hakavod
Body builder??? “Kiddush hashem” for not prancing around a stage almost naked showing off his body because he is shomer Shabbos?? Is it Purim again or am I missing something?????
What stopped me is Shavuos So despite Shovu’os having less Kedusha than Shabbos [as ensconced with Yaknehaz] this has won him over more profoundly. Being that it is Shovu’os that grabbed his eye, why isn’t the picture posted that of cheesecake and the Luchos?
Thank you from across the world you have done this for all of us
Thank you very much
Very nice. The pinteleh Yid is alive and well. Baruch Hashem!
kiddush haShem!
may haShem bless him with much success in gashmius and ruchnius…..
Thank you, dear Mordi. You give inspiration for all of us to do Kiddush Hashem. You gave us the most important event in your life not to desecrate Shabbat and Yomtov. May we all find places in our lives to do the same! אשריך.
Respect to the young man for overcoming his challenge.
Obviously this was translated from the original Hebrew.
And the word תחתון means underwear- not bottom. LOL!
“… a formerly Chareidi from a family in the Sanhedria area…”
Sounds like he IS Charedi to me. Kol haKavod!
The the one who calls himself gadol hatorah or hadorah.
Yes you are missing something.
And so is 147.
Thank you Rebbele BB….so if a Chareidi woman wanted to participate in a body building contest (wearing a more tziniusdik speedo) it would be fine if they rescheduled the finals to motzi Shabbos??
Yesh kono olomo b’shaa achas
In response to the commentators here who do not appreciate the finer aspects of knowing G-d in all one’s endeavours, I will offer the story of Rafael Halperin, born 1924. Wikpedia writes: “Born in Austria, Halperin moved to Mandatory Palestine with his family in 1933 … moved to Bnei Brak the following year.” So the setting, Bnei Brak in 1933 with this 9-year-old. During the years he learned in the various Yehsivos in the country, took body building and Karate and so forth. So before he left to America in the 1950’s for his wrestling career, he was taken to the Rabbi whose name and reputation is forever associated with Bnei Brak of that era (and I received this story from a relative of the same Rabbi), the Rabbi (with no condemnations , no histrionics) tells him that wherever he goes, he must remember he represents the Jewish people. So on Rafael Halperin’s passing in 2011, Isaac Blachor tells his recollection of the following event he witnessed:
> He [Rafael Halperin] was scheduled to fight Antonina Rocca, the biggest name in professional wrestling at the time, in a match in Madison Square Garden, certain to be a sell-out. It was scheduled for Motzei Shabbat, just after Shabbat.
> Halpern dutifully waited until my father made Havdalah that Saturday night before he took his bag, raced down the stairs from his third-floor room to rush to the Garden. He told me beforehand that he arranged to have it the last on the card that night so he would not violate the Sabbath.
some people should remember the saying “dont judge someone, just because he sins differently than you”.
How can someone who is a Shomer Shabbos be called a FORMER chareidi?
How can someone who gives up his life’s dream for the dream of a life not be called a charad li’dvar HaShem?
Is it possible that YWN is expressing divisive ideals?
In response to the one who calls himself gadolhdorah (u don’t really claim u are),
And ignoring ur need to insult;
U must agree that a man has a higher threshold to tznius so ur example is incorrect.
And his performance (ur insulting term of prancing – notwithstanding ) May not be worthy of a Rov or such but is certainly tolerable.
While his nisoyon was a huge mountain. And yes a higher level in kiddush
Are u aware of how many and high a percentage worked on shabbos coming to America.
Do u have a lifelong dream? With most of your life towards that? Are u so sure u wud give it up?
“Al tiftach peh”.
Why don’t u appreciate the good?
Easy to be an armchair critic. Put an effort to see good in others.
It’s a chillul Hashem if we are getting our inspiration from people who aren’t observance
Sounds to me that a public body building competition is against B’Hatzneyah lechess, (see beginning of Shulchan Oruch!) and a chillul Hashem. No- we are not Greeks who worship the form of the human body! Nebach…..
Not doing it on shevuos however- is a step in the right direction! Well done!
………Nebach……