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sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highschool-prep-rally/orthodox-jewish-high-school-team-forfeits-rather-play-122913038.html
its so amazing! to actually see something positive in the news abt us awesome jews!!!! the comments on the bottom are also worth reading theyre mind blowing!!!! 😀
The story was also on Espn’s website, its too bad they have to end their season but they obviously made the right call.
There is now an article about this on FoxNews and a poll right now the poll is 75% in favor of the game time being changed.
Beren Boys fall short in the championship game 46-42 but made a great Kiddush Hashem by willing to forgo their chance at a title in honor of Shabbos observance kudos to the boys, the parents who decided to take it to the courts are another matter.
I heard that in the end the time of the game was changed to motzei shabbos.
Some advocates (and parents, I think) saw the story in the news and went to court to get the game changed from Shabbos. It was still a Kiddush Hashem regardless that the team wouldn’t have played if the court hadn’t backed them.
There were a lot of people calling for the change, not just parents or people connected to the school/team, including professional basketball teams in the area. They did change that game to before Shabbos. The team won and played in the championship game, which was help on motzai Shabbos, which they unfortunately lost.
All in all it was a big kiddush Hashem since they were willing to forfeit the game no matter what.
Forgive my ambivalence, but the story clearly started out a kiddush hashem (boys said they wouldn’t play on Shabbos and were thankful for a successful season), but it quickly decinded into supporting typical Jewish stereotypes (Jews didn’t like the hand dealt to them, so they sued to get what they want).
Big missed opprtunity, at a time when we Yidden need to put our best feet forward, IMO.
I’m not so sure this is a kiddish Hashem. The Beren team knew the rules about game scheduling before they began the tournament, yet they went ahead and played anyway. They violated the rules, then raised a fuss when things didn’t go their way. Is this really what we want the kids to learn?
Mamashtakah: They raised no fuss. It’s not their fault the media (including Yahoo and ESPN) picked it up and wanted to portray them as victims of the system. And it’s not their fault the system is inherently problematic for frum Jews. I’m sure that if they were a seventh-day adventist team who also would forfeit before playing on Saturday or a Mormon team and Sunday then the outcome in the courts would have been the same.
They didn’t insist it be rescheduled. They readily accepted the answer that it will not be rescheduled. They violated nothing.
The lawsuit was by a few individual parents and it was against the wishes of the school and the team.
I just found it terribly upsetting that 3 of the parents sued for the kids to play. Sure they got to play, but in return they gave up their kiddush Hashem. So now what do they have to show for their efforts? An extra 90 minutes of cardio excercise? Was giving up the opportunity to sanctify Hashem’s name really only worth a few hundred lousy calories?
What I found interesting, is that I have 2 or 3 non-frum Jewish neighbors who were all emotionaly wrapped up in the “fight” to let these boys play on a non-Shabbos time. And they all came running to me to tell me the great news that the games had been rescheduled.
To them, it was all about reforming a sports authority to support Jews – in other words, all about man vs. man. For me, it was all about sanctifying Hashem’s name. Do you see the difference?
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