A Jewish hockey player and his junior team have reached a compromise (after a dilemma reported HERE on YW) that will let him play while still keeping his faith. Benjamin Rubin, 18, will play games during Shabbos, but will skip the matches of the Gatineau Olympiques during sacred religious holidays.
“He just decided it was time to get serious with his hockey and he wants to find out if he can make a career of it,” said Charles Henry, the team’s governor and the director of the hockey program.
The Olympiques started their season without Rubin, who was at home in Montreal for Rosh Hashanah.
He will miss two other games in September for Yom Kippur.
Rubin and the team consulted with his parents and rabbis to finally decide he could play during Shabbos on Fridays and Saturdays.
Michael Rubin, the player’s father, said the deal was an enormous concession for the family.
“It’s not an entirely satisfactory arrangement,” he said.
“I don’t like the Shabbos compromise. But all of these negotiations showed me one thing: The Olympiques like my son as a hockey player. My son’s teammates made me feel he is important to them and that makes me happy.”
(Source: OS)
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28 Responses
I am sorry to hear he has decided to do this
So much for Shabbos observance
Nebach.
I guess there will be an eruv in the arena when he “carries the puck up ice?”
Nebach is all I could say. Such a nisayon.
The sentence “Rubin and the team consulted with his parents and rabbis to finally decide he could play during Shabbos…” is misleading. It can be interpreted to mean that rabbis allowed Rubin to play on Shabbos. No self-respecting orthodox rabbi would have permitted this.
What could have been a tremendous Kiddush Hashem, has unfortunately become a Chillul Hashem. The article states that besides the games he missed on Rosh Hashana,he will miss two other games in September for Yom Kippur. However, there are still two other days in September when Sukkos occurs. The first days of Sukkos this year fall on September 27 and 28, so it appears he won’t even be keeping his side of the bargain of keeping the Yomim Tovim. Finally, you write that the bargain reached will let Rubin play while still keeping his faith. How can someone who is mechallel Shabbos considered to still be keeping his faith? Shabbos is the bedrock of our faith. May Hashem give this young man the courage to reconsider, and make the morally proper decision.
Each person has their own nisyonois. Hard to judge w/o knowing the person intimately.
Okay seriously. Lets try to figure out what melacha he is violating. I understand that this would be a case of uvdah d’chol but that is border-line. I asked quite a few rabbonim back when the original post was up, but there is no real melocho involved if he would be in the tchum for shabbos and his equipment would be in the arena. I would like to here what the oilam has to say on this. Besides, if there was a melocho involved, wouldnt this post be Loshon hora gomer?!
Chillul shabbos ‘compromise’ is news?
That is absolutely terrible. What a Chilul Hashem that a career is more important than Shabbos Kodesh!
This absolutely terrible. It’s a Chilul Hashem!
Although not many of us face such a nisayon regarding Shabbos, this news is tragic and depressing. An 18- year old kid is throwing his life away for agame and a possible career in the NHL. What a rachamunus! “He just decided it was time to get serious with his hockey and he wants to find out if he can make a career of it,” Serious about hockey and …. yiddishkeit? Michael Rubin, the player’s father, said the deal was an enormous concession for the family. “It’s not an entirely satisfactory arrangement,” he said. Put your foot down dad. Be a man! I only hope he does teshuva.
You know, it doesn’t sound like this family has much in the way of a Jewish background, so I think they deserve much respect for this “concession”. May we all merit the true redemption and a year filled with only good things.
Priorities, priorities!!!!
I believe this was the unfortunate attitude the grandparents of so many tinokos shenishbu had.
It is not appropriate to judge others especially during the Yemai Hadin.
This is some compromise let me tell you.
If he walks to the stadiums, what issurim exactly would he be doing? I can’t think of any deoraisas, or clear derabonons. It seems like it’s certainly not something one should do lechatchila, but when you get right down to it how many of us would turn down a career as a professional athlete over such murky questions?
At the very least this counts as “hefsed merubeh”, which justifies many kulos in hilchos kashrus and other areas. We should also take into consideration the leniency Chazal instituted in the case of a fire on Shabbos, because “adam bahul al mamono”, and if you don’t allow people to go up to the line of the ikkar hadin, they may cross it instead.
So without knowing exactly what compromises he has made, I don’t think anyone has the right to condemn him. It would have been a tremendous kiddush hashem had he decided not to compromise at all, but nobody has the right to demand such a kiddush hashem “af yenem’s cheshbon”.
There is no issur of lashon hara on a mechallel shabbos bifarhesya. Therefore, if this is chillul shabbos it is not lashon hara.
The gemara in Yerushalmi Taanis 4:5 says that the city of Tur Shimon was destroyed because they played ball. The Pnai Moshe and Korben Ha’aidah add “on Shabbos”. The Korbon Ha’aidah adds another p’shat “they involved themselves with worldly futilities and did not engross themselves in Torah study. It does not say they were mechallel Shabbos.
Agav….
In 1966, Sam Zeitlin of Brooklyn, a member of the American National Cycling Team encountered continued anti-semitism in his quest for a cycling championship. He wondered from country to country going to Canada, Mexico, and finally winding up in Israel where his cycling talent was appreciated without anti-semitism. As the Olympics approached, he was also getting involved with orthodoxy as well and had decided to become a full practicing orthodox Jew. When he found out the qualifiers for the 20th summer olympic games were on Shabbos, he begged to have them changed to another day, with the strong argument “Without me you don’t have anyone to compete in the Olympics” The Zionist official in charge refused to change the date. Israel did not send a cycling team to the 20th summer Olympic games in Munich in 1972.
When Arab terrorists burst into the Israeli complex and killed 11 Israeli athletes, Sabbath observant Sam Zeitlin was in Israel watching on television, what would have been his death, had he not been Sabbath observant.
-Echoes Of The Maggid – Chapter 25
another one bites the dust
A couple of things. As someone who has dealt with issues such as these in the past, I just want to remind you all of one thing. We see posts here all day and night about our kids on the street and they need help….etc.
If this man is going to play hockey-then we need to keep the option open that he comes back to his religion-assuming he loses it of course-with love and that he does not have a sick taste in his mouth from all the judgemental self righteousness that our people, unfortunately have a history of. Or maybe you think it’s a good idea to chase him away with name calling and pointing out silly stories about the death of athletes in Germany in 72. I also missed that olympics because I was keeping shabbos….as did my mother sister and brothers-silly story. Leave it in the censored art scroll book it was written in…
Secondly, one may want to actually think about the La’avim…I’m not sure Yungerman is all that far off-as uncomfortable as it may seem.
Think about how this is handled-we may never have a chance to ensure he loves Judaism again. I can’t help but think about the requirement for someone to eat on Yom Kippur, just so he will be able to fast on the next one….or someone who is machallel Shabbos, in order to keep shabbos in the future….I KNOW this is a harder issue than you may realize….
Thanx Bubby for telling us!
#17 you misunderstood. Read up on American history. Go back just one hundred years.
post 21 from onlyajew “I can’t help but think about… or someone who is machallel Shabbos, in order to keep shabbos in the future….I KNOW this is a harder issue than you may realize…”
this player does NOT have his life on the line, if he is going to be machallel Shabbos – it is NOT so that he can keep Shabbos in the future — it would be for his own interests of playing the game — apparently it is you who is having the hard time with the issue not the others that you are addressing.
one more thing – not sure why you have such a hard time with Artscroll. Artscroll has been most helpful to many Yidden. Additionally, many recently (or even long time) observant people, receive chizuk from the stories like what was posted.
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people are questioning if he will technically violate Shabbos once the door to compromise is opened up… sadly more things usually fall. – what if he has a game Friday night in city “a” and another game the next day/night in city “b” how will he get there?
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I was surprised by this development – I thought that he would do the right thing and stick to Torah principles. hopefully, when the time comes to play his first Shabbos and/or Yom Tov game, he has the courage to say NO and walk away from it.
mdlevine, we don’t know the details of his compromise deal; maybe if the team has games in different locations on the same Shabbos he’ll only play one of them. Or maybe (and this is pure speculation) he’ll ride in the team bus (not a clear issur) michutz lit’chum (which is a clear issur, but not necessarily deoraita), and once he gets there he can get off the bus inside the stadium so he can play without further violating the t’chum (kol habayit ke’arba amot). We don’t know that he has agreed to do any clear issurim, let alone which ones or how severe they are. All we know is that he’s gone past “lechatchila” territory, but maybe he’s still in “bediavad”.
And I remind you of my previous comment here – his situation is certainly not pikuach nefesh, but perhaps it can better be compared to the kulot that Chazal made in the case of a fire because “adam bahul al mamono”, or the kulot we apply regularly in kashrut in a case of “hefsed merubeh”.
Where exactly is the khillul shabbes in playing hockey? Assuming that he isn’t driving to the game or anything like that. But just the fact that playing hockey isn’t shabbasdik does not make it khillul shabbes.
This is one Nisayon (test) that I never had to face. This is one test we should make a major effort that our children never face of choosing between Shabbos and making a livelyhood. Fortunately most professionals in this country can avoid Chillul Shabbos. If you don’t have a unique skill in this country then willingness to work on weekends including Shabbos may be what gets you the job. We must make sure our children have the skills that will give them leverage in getting jobs that do not involve violating Shabbos.
MDLevine,
You obviously had missed the point I was making. My point was and is this….if he is going to be machallel Shabbos-and by the way, I am not sure he is-but let’s just say other things begin to fall as you say-then he should return (when he decides to) to a Judaism that is something he wants to return to, not one that judges him harshly with pompus righteousness and chases him away with baseless hatred and silly name calling….that was and is my only point.
As for artscroll, I have no problem with most of their stuff and use it everyday, however the “let’s not say this in the book because people might think an Adom Gadol actually read Aristotle” is a little too much to swallow and cheapens both the lives of the subject and the intelligence of the reader.
Lastly, before anyone gets the idea that parents are at fault here-which has been alluded to above, let’s remember some of the parents in our history, who have had a child struggle with his yiddishkeit….
Adom, Avraham, Yitzchok, Aron Ha’cohen, Dovid Hamelech….do I need to go on?
Let’s be careful how we judge our fellow man…..
Mordy wrote that “The sentence “Rubin and the team consulted with his parents and rabbis to finally decide he could play during Shabbos…” is misleading. It can be interpreted to mean that rabbis allowed Rubin to play on Shabbos. No self-respecting orthodox rabbi would have permitted this. ”
What is misleading about this. I entirely disagree (although I agree it could have been clearer). I have been involved with or have first hand knowledge of “psak” from “self respecting orthodox rabbis” that would be very suprising. For example, and maybe its apples and oranges, where the rov told the wife NOT to cover her hair because her husband objected to her covering her hair. ( I know, I know, shalom bayis etc — but my point is, here is a rabbi who said DONT DO IT). Here, Im sure that the question was more in the sense of — if you are going to do this — this is how you minimize chilul shabbos and perhaps the rov even said that he is not doing any melacha d’oraisa (and perhaps even d’rabban) and therefore it was “not assur.”
As a practical matter — arrangements like this are really hard to keep up and will erode other parts of shabbos observance. (Who carries the stuff to the bus without an eruv? etc).
A rabbi told me a story that when he was a kid he played high school football. My understanding was that he played under the same conditions as Benjamin (going on the bus, etc). His father said Good Shabbos when he left; Good Shabbos when he came back. Now, the guy who told the story could be embellishing (although he told it about himself) but he is today a rebbe in yeshiva.
You are asking a lot from an 18 year old. The parents are obviously saddened by this as evidenced by their statements.