It seems that every time a Jew does something good, usually in public but not necessarily so, it is touted as a kiddush hashem, while every public bad act is touted as a chilul hashem. These concepts are relatively vague, like some others, and people put a lot of their own biases into determining when something qualifies or does not.
The incident that made me think of this now was a goal scored in a Chinese soccer game.
Eran Zahavi is an Israeli footballer who recently signed a contract to play for a Chinese team. In his first game playing for the Chinese the other day Zahavi scored a goal and an assist to lead his new team to victory. Zahavi wrapped himself in an Israeli flag to celebrate, and when the team went out after the game for a celebratory meal, Zahavi, reportedly, refused to eat from the dog with the rest of his [Chinese] teammates.
source: Behadrei
This has been touted online as a great kiddush hashem.
But is it really a kiddush hashem? Zahavi isnt religious and from what I could gather from the various articles and comments he doesn't keep kosher. I didn't see an explicit reason given as to why he refused to partake in this Chinese delicacy; maybe it was for kashrut reasons or maybe he just didnt want to eat dog meat.
Wrapping himself in an Israeli flag isn't a kiddush hashem, but perhaps over time and if he does it often enough the Chinese will take a real liking to Israel, so that is good.
The game Zahavi played so well in was on Shabbos, so it is difficult to say that what he did was a kiddush hashem.
It was a bold and confident act to refuse to eat what everyone else was eating in a celebration like that. Surely it was a good thing he did. I am just not sure it qualifies as a kiddush hashem.
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If the game was played on Shabbat, then there is indeed, no kiddush Hashem from an avera. But I don't see anything 'wrong' with traditional Jews perhaps not being stringent on Kashrut certifications, yet not willing to eat treif animals.
ReplyDeleteEran Zahavi publicly puts his hands on his eyes, and head before each game (even on Shabbat), saying Shema Yisrael. This is well known. I don't know if he has done so in China, but I imagine he would. I think it is to be commended that he would not eat the dog meat. Let us not judge him more than that.
ReplyDeleteJosh and Meir - no argument from me. My post made the same point. All I was saying that as good as it was of him, I think calling it a kiddush hashem might be a bit of overkill
ReplyDeleteagreed.
DeleteIs it possible to fix the recent comments widget? It stopped worked in the past few weeks.
it seems that the recent comments gadget was a third party gadget that Google has recently found problems with and therefore removed it from their system. i will look for a reasonable alternative
DeleteZahavi is just a typical secular Israeli and is proud of his country but has no real connection to anything 'Jewish'. His not wanting to eat dog meat is normal, inasmuch as most people (from the western world) are turned off by the revolting thought of eating a 'pet'. Yasher koach, at least, just for that.
ReplyDelete