Nov 7, 2022

Sundays for Sports

MK Betzalel Smotritch (Hatzionut Hadatit) today commented on the fact that the soccer/football leagues in Israel all play their games on Shabbos, thus excluding many fans from going to or watching the games and enjoying the sport. Smotritch suggested moving league games to other days of the week to be inclusive of shomrei shabbos.

Interestingly, Smotritch's argument is not against chilul shabbos, but to include religious people who cant watch the games on Shabbos.

From what I have read in the past, games during the week (except for Thursday night) generally do not get great attendance. School and work nights are not conducive, it seems, for going to your favorite team's games.

I think the real solution that Smotritch should push for, since he raised the issue in the first place, is Sundays. Make Sunday a day off of work. Then religious people can do things on Sunday that they could not do on Shabbos - tiyulim, sports and many other activities. With Sunday being a workday, that is virtually impossible for most people, so Shabbos becomes the only day available (in addition to Thursday night to some extent). Sunday off would lower so much tension around Israel. People would not fight so much over Shabbos if they could do all those activities, or many of them, on Sunday. Make Sunday a non-work day and then the leagues playing on Sundays will attract many fans to the games.


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4 comments:

  1. LES AYMNovember 07, 2022 6:56 PM

    Very much agree! Living here in the USA, whenever yomtov overlaps Sundays, it is often a hardship.
    On one hand you don't need to request from your boss vacation time due to the "Jewish Holidays". But on the other hand when the yom tovim fall out on weekends, you tend to need to cram time in during the week to catch up on bills, errands, shopping, weekend family visits that are not walking distance etc.

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  2. Cohen YNovember 08, 2022 1:23 AM

    Agree.
    Although probably too much of a jump. Should propose to start with first Sunday of every month
    This had been a perennial issue the mega capitalist moguls keep getting the knesset to quietly bury

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  3. AnonymousNovember 08, 2022 8:36 AM

    Already some matches are played on Friday, Motzei Shabbat or Sunday. But not all. The others who would benefit would be the players themselves, who could spend Shabbat with their families. The other thing that needs to be dealt with is that international matches of the official state team should never take place abroad on Shabbat/Chag. In addition to the fans and players playing in Shabbat, religious fans cannot even watch thematch on TV/web

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