Hashkafah on watching the Super Bowl

I watch the Super Bowl, this year there were no shots of cheerleaders. They are usually not the focus of most televised games due to the camera set ups. What I don’t get is the frumma who watch the Super Bowl every year and complain about the costumes or lack thereof at the halftime shows. Seriously you know the costumes are going to be an issue so find something else to do for 30 minutes. I wanted to hear Shakira and JLo so I took the tablet into the kitchen, and while it was facing away from me I wrote out my grocery list for the month.

Joseph – It breaks my heart when super bowl sunday comes around and I hear people talk about getting together to watch it. and if there is any influence to be had on the decisions of those who go, then great. but I am always amazed at the free pass you give yourself to talk this way about klal Yisroel. You have a torah obligation to be dan lkaf zchus at least as much as your thrill to denigrate. If you want to be honest, even you must admit that your advance condemning and expectations of horrible behavior is wrong al pi halacha. Please don’t allow yourself the same sweeping rationalizations you accuse them of making.

there are people who genuinely care about what klal Yisroel spends their time on , instead of just condemning them. Those people have set up different options of watching the superbowl without commercials and half time shows, or incentives to be doing something better instead. I thank those people from the bottom of my heart for not sitting back and cursing klal Yisroel, but for taking action instead. May Hashem reward them with only good.

Attended the SuperSeder event (along with hundreds of others of all ages) cosponsored by Kollel Bnai Torah (Rabbi Eisen’s Shul) and Yeshiva Aderes Hatorah (Rabbi Senter’s yeshiva) at the Aguda Yisroel Bais Binyomin (AKA Aguda of Ave L. Speakers included Rabbi Senter, The Morah Dasra Rabbi Tuvia Leiff, and Rabbi Eli Mansour.

I watched the super Bowl went to maariv for a good part of Halftime & when I put the TV back on way still in the middle of Halftime & turned right off & put it back on fifteen minutes later just in time for the second half. So I would say if you watch it you must turn it off for halftime & probably some or many of the commercials

A word to Joseph and his amazing technicolor krumkeit. My rav gave a drasha shabbos and he mentioned that someone, well known, was dealing with a couple of thousand OTD teens. You know what the common thread was between all of them? They didnt have interest in sports or they were stopped from watching it by people like you. There is nothing wrong with children having an outlet. You can shut off the TV during halftime. And if anything else bothers you, well then I suggest you lock yourself up in your house and never come out. There is
nothing more in the streets that there is during a football game, and as the other guy said, the commercials were pretty harmless (and dumb). My 2 cents.

lakwdstrng and Eli – Good for you that you found a way to gain some ground against your yetzer hora. I would feel even better if I heard you say that you hope to do better next year, that you realize there is still danger in waiting to see if there are still uncovered women on the screen before resuming watch. Maybe watch with someone else who can safely man the dial? and ultimately, May Hashem grant you the strength one day soon to find no draw in things like this!

Boyswork,

I’ve heard the opposite too

There’s a family I know that their son liked watching soccer so when I asked the father why he lets him the father replied “you got to pick your battles”

The kid isn’t Frum now

Can someone actually explain to me the draw of watching the Super Bowl If you don’t follow the sport all season? It’s just another game.
Big deal!

The Super Bowl isn’t really football. It’s four hours of commercials with bits of football in between.

Football is cool, I used to watch the highlights. Competitive sports are exciting, and therefore fun to watch.
Thats why one would watch it.
I never have watched the superbowl though, as others mentioned, its much more a hype than a football game.
And as Joseph so succinctly put it, who gives one a heter to do aveiros once a year? It is by now well known that the half time show is full of ugliness. Ugliness that pulls, at the taavos of every yid. You wanna associate yourself with that? disgusting.
If Someone were to turn it off, that would ‘technically’ be a different cheshbon. But we all know how it goes, “i’ll turn it off when she starts singing” or only by her dancing… woops.
So my answer? There is nothing inherently assur with watching the superbowl as lomg as the pritzus can be kept out. But it is a davar megunah, being that it is so intertwined and defined by its entertainment element. Furthermore, it is clear that those who stay away are for good reason, and those who join, well, you just have to guess how sincere his “but we turned it off for the half time show” is.
1 more point, i saw someone ballyhooing about the virtues of dan lekaf zechus, you are completely missaplying that principle as do most in their chanufa of the wicked. thereby fullfilling the gemaras comment that “muttar l’hisgaros berishaim …. v’kol mi sheomer ainu, mipnei shelibo nokfo”.
I would live to take on this topic in a different thread.

Syag.
What exactly did Joseph say that was so bad that you publicly excoriated him. I mean specifically on this thread. You condemned him for not judging favorably.
Who? Who did he not judge favorably??
He was not talking about anyone specific.
He was talking about the general idea of people who watch this dirt and then excuse it or try to kosher it up.
It’s actually forbidden to make excuses for such behavior.
See the Chafetz Chaim in sefer Chafetz Chaim where he excoriates those who sit between מנחה ומעריב On Shabbos and just talk where he enumerate a laundry list of sins that they commit. What happened to judging favorably? Why would he not? Judge, those people favorably and said, he’s very clearly rights for posterity that they are sinners tremendous Sinners and list of their entire list of sins.

Additionally the gemara states that one who walks past a house of ill repute and says I will walk past and I will not look If there was another way that he could walk he is. is a RAsha . I ask you is there any greater modern-day equivalent of this ??
and somebody who says I will watch the Super Bowl but I will turn off the halftime show. I will not look at the commercials is that not exactly somebody who voluntarily is walking past a house of ill repute and saying I won’t look at the indecent sites.??
So the gemara call him a Rasha It does not say judge him favorably.

And another thing why does judging favorably always end when it comes to Joseph supposed. It seems that one comes to Joseph. There’s no commandment to judge favorably. How interesting could it perhaps be because Joseph makes people uncomfortable so they go on the defensive. When people see others Sending to God. It doesn’t bother them. So they are very quick to spout the judge favorably line. However, as soon as it becomes personal and they feel like somebody perhaps it’s attacking them they forget about the whole business with judging favorably and immediately, they start condemning and insulting very very interesting

kluger – IF you actually read the post you would have your answers.
IF I was defending the superbowl watchers you would be correct.
IF anything Joseph said applied to me you can rant about defensiveness.
Assuming you are here for the drama, perhaps I can interest you in an additional set of cotton balls.

The Superbowl is not just a game, its an event. People get together , eat together and watch the game together.

thats why even not sports fans watch it.

If you can learn all day without breaks, then you should not be bittual torah for it, but for those of us not on that madreiga of the Choftez Chaim or other gedoli yisroel we need to pick our battles

zdad – that is one of the lamest rationalizations so far. Seriously.
I can’t be Einstein so why take physics. And as long as I’m not taking chemistry either, why not mix dangerous chemicals since I’m not a chemist anyway.

Syag how About just answering my Question.?
There is alot of verbiage in your latest comment. I don’t have the strength to pick through it all. But a few.
I spewed? How would one tell the difference in written words?
I didn’t stick to facts? Exactly what did I say that was conjecture?

You are making all sorts of assumptions about my comment, starting with stating that I am not interested in hearing what you have to say, then you tell me that I’m the one who is not sticking to facts.
Years ago from the tone and content of some of your comments I thought you were a man. When you posted at some point that you are a woman I was not sure if you were playing.
Now you’ve proved your femalehood

Its not lame at all, the problem is when someone is told to act like someone greater than them, and they fail, many times the con sequences are worse.

If someone cannot live up to be the Chofetz Chaim (Which they cant) they might give up saying its too hard (Making things too hard only creates opportunties for failure) . Better to live up to your best and not the Chofetz Chaim, You can succeed at being your best, you cannot succeed at being the Chofetz Chaim

I had a grandson’s bris in Yerushalayim on Monday morning. BH I did not even have the nisayon of watching any of it, as it started at 1:30 AM.

@Kluger
You write that there is no commandment to judge favorably? That what you meant?

We’re not talking pritzus here, we’re talking watching a football game while turning it off for the pritzus and watching something yid appropriate (Chazak or Simcha leiner)

Aish had a halftime shiur

CHASH
i didnt say exactly that there is no chiyuv dan likaf zechus
i said and i have sources (starters in the chafetz chaim ) that an average person doing something which has greater than 50% odds of being wrong, one does not need to judge them favorably. a straight reading of the chafetz chaim actually says its forbidden to judge them favorably, but there are those who argue on his understanding of the source)
so in this discussion where we are really just discussing an idea, as there are no specific people being discussed, its difficult to fathom why or by what right one would look to judge favorably people who choose to walk past the door of the house of ill repute

For those who enjoy watching the Super Bowl, but are committed to Torah, the solution is simple.

1. Perform the greatest mitzvah of all, Yishuv Eretz Yisrael. The game is in the middle of the night. Go to sleep.
2. Wake up, daven in shul, then watch the condensed game. No cheerleaders, no half-time show, no commercials. 42 minutes and done.

Chas
I did say there were those who did not take the view that it is forbidden. I didn’t remember who. I guess it was the c c himself.
Thank you for your compliments.
As you yourself pointed out. I usually ignore personal insults and I don’t report to them either as, as we both know they add nothing to a discussion.
In this case I just saw it was going nowhere fast and I thought maybe it would shake her up to respond rationally in order to disprove my point.
It seems not to have worked though.