called up to the Big Leagues...

Can you imagine a player on a Minor League team rejecting the call up to the Big Leagues? He has been playing for years, working, training, all for the day he would get that call saying we think you are ready for the Big Leagues. He finally gets the call - how often do you think it happens that he says "No thank you"?

Well, it happened in Israel. A religious footballer, Shahar Moshe, in the "minor leagues" - the A League - playing for HaShikma Ramat Chen (HaShikma means Sycamore) got the call up to try out for HaPoel Tel Aviv in the premier football league.

While Ramat Chen plays their games on Fridays, the jump to the big leagues means playing on shabbos. Shahar Moshe asked his Rosh Yeshiva of the yeshiva he learns in what to do. Rav Eliyahu Malka recommended he stay and play for the Sycamores in Ramat Chen and not be mechalel shabbos.

And so he chose to do.

Shahar Moshe:

The Torah is more important to me than football. If that is what my rav told me to do, that is holy in my eyes. Shabbos is the source of all blessings.

A great kiddush hashem for doing the right thing, and making what must have been a difficult choice.

(source: Mynet)