The World Cup, aka Mondial, being played now in Qatar has presented an interesting question. Today's game will be the final, the premier, the biggest match of the tournament. Millions of people, some say over a billion people, have been watching the games until now and will watch today's game. The game is set to begin at 5pm, which is right about when we in Israel will be lighting Chanukah candles (some light at sunset which is 4:38 or so, and others light at tzeis which is 5:05). The dilemma many people seem to have is if they should light on time and miss the beginning of the game, should they delay lighting until a break in the game, should they light while watching - major problems. People just don't want to miss a nice portion of the game, a game that happens once every 4 years.

Tomer Hemed, an Israeli footballer playing for Wellington Phoenix, scored a goal the other day against Melbourne City. Celebrating the goal. Hemed pulled a kipa out of his shirt and put it on his head, while pointing to heaven and covering his eyes he recited the Shma prayer.

Israeli footballer (sounds better than "soccerer") playing in Spain, Sean Weissman, wore a black ribbon on his arm in memory of the 45 victims of the Meron tragedy, and when he scored a goal, instead of the usual celebration he stopped and help up his hands to signify 45, dedicating the goal to the memory of the 45 victims. 

As an aside, the goal was later disqualified and revoked on some technicality. Those damn antisemites! :-)

The irony is so thick it can be cut with a knife.

The Bet Shemesh soccer (aka football) team posted the following on their Facebook page:

This Friday, February 21 2020 at 12:30pm will be a playoff match between Maccabi Arad vs Ironi Bet Shemesh.

Maccabi Arad leads the league in first pace with no losses. Ironi Bet Shemesh has risen to fifth place in the standings and is fighting to continue to climb to third or even second place, realistically. The team that wins the league this year moves up next season to the higher league.

no, I have never successfully understood how the crazy league system here works . The post includes some more details of the games and who moves up and who plays who and playoffs, but I just don't understand it. But what I did get is that they feel they have a realistic chance of moving up if they can keep winning.

Over the past 8 years, Ironi Bet Shemesh has not had a home stadium to play in and had to play elsewhere. The Bet Shemesh stadium finally reopened about half a year ago and a number of teams have been using it from the various leagues. Now that Ironi Bet Shemesh once again has a local home field, they call on the fans to return to support the team, to come to the game on Friday and cheer for Bet Shemesh.

The post does not say what it costs for tickets. I suspect ti is free, but do not know that for sure.

According to Behadrei, a group of 5 yeshiva guys from an unnamed yeshiva in Israel recently flew to Spain to go to a football (soccer) game between Barcelona and some other time.

As happens during a game in any sport, the camera pans the crowd. At one point during the game, the camera picked up the group of 5 yeshiva guys. To their dismay, the game was being watched by some people back home, other yeshiva boys who often watch the games in local kiosks, who recognized them. Word got back to the yeshiva and the 5 boys were tossed.

Needless to say, it is unlikely the boys at the game, spotted on camera, were behaving similarly to the way Rav Zeev Leff recently was caught on camera behaving at a game in Scotland, though I haven't seen video of the incident. Not that I think people are expected to go to games and bring a gemara with them - God knows how many Cubs, Bulls and Blackhawks (and yes, also White Sox) games I have gone to without a gemara in tow.

The main issue is pretty obvious. I won't comment on it. Yeshiva boys should be learning, not traveling to games, the army does not give them deferments so they can go to Spain and watch games, blah blah blah.

The funny thing is that they were snitched on and publicized by other guys who were breaking the rules and going out of yeshiva (granted, they did not go as far as Spain) to watch the game... That breaks some sort of bro code, actually any decent human code, in my book..

My son was watching some football match (soccer for us Americans) last night between the Israeli national team and a team from Scotland. The Israelis lost, though they were winning at the time... Suddenly he calls out surprised. He saw in the stands a Haredi family at the game, and the father was learning gemara. At the game, in Scotland! I went over to see, but they had already moved on and I missed the opportunity.

It turns out this was Rabbi Zeev Leff, rav of Moshav Matityahu. Rabbi Leff is in Scotland visiting his children who live there. According to Srugim, when he heard the Israeli team was going to be there for a match at the same time as his visit, he decided to go to the game to support them and cheer them on. Of course, Rabbi Leff spent most of the time learning and not actually watching the game.

Funnily enough, the Israeli announcer calling the game suggested the rav say some tehillim so they will win the match..









It would have really been cool to see him wearing a team jersey....

Back in February there was a tacit agreement to allow the soccer/football leagues to continue operating on Shabbos, and the necessary approvals and permits were granted.

Despite that, for some reason, the Haredi MKs are now protesting potential chilul shabbos expected to happen this Shabbos as part of the preparations for a Saturday night football match between Israel's National Team and Argentina's National Team. The match will be after Shabbos in Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem but security preparations and security for global star Messi will cause chilul shabbos earlier in the day. The match is part of the lead up to the World Cup games.

Haredi MKs are sending their protest letters now and asking Minister Miri Regev to not allow chilul shabbos.
source: Actualic

1. I am not sure what they expect to happen. The game is happening, and security needs to be in place. How can they do this without chilul shabbos? Is the protest just lip service? shouldn't they have worked to prevent this when it was initially scheduled? At least with the Eurovision the issue is being raised well in advance rather than at the last moment..

2. Why are they protesting now when they already agreed to allow the soccer leagues to continue on Shabbos? This itself seems even less than the normal shabbos desecration as this will just be final preparations rather than the athletes playing and the fans driving and participating in the event.

3. Again, why are security preparations done on Shabbos afternoon for the soccer match any different than security reparations done on Shabbos afternoon for Lag b'Omer celebrations which the Haredi MKs consider ok and not protest-worthy?

In a unique form of protest, some activists played soccer (football) in the hallways of the Supreme Court building.

Har Habayit activists, upset at the way the police have ignored the Arabs playing soccer on Har Habayit, among other things they are upset about in relation to the way Jews are treated on Har Habayit.

In the past the Supreme Court has ruled that it is prohibited to play ball on Har Habayit, yet the police ignore the ruling and ignore the Arabs who do continue to play ball despite the ruling.

So, these activists went into the Supreme Court building and held up signs calling to put an end to the soccer games on Temple Mount and played ball in the lobby and hallways to emphasize the point.

After a little bit of time, security guards put an end to the game, taking the ball away, and banishing the activists from the complex.

The activists got a nice dig into the police anyway recommending the Chief Police send his Temple Mount stationed officers to be understudies of the security guards in the Supreme Court building and learn from them how to deal with complex situations that happen daily on Har Habayit.
source: Srugim

Granted, it was a cute dig, but the police would not learn how to deal with complex and dangerous situations, as what happened in the Supreme Court building was not very complex or dangerous. They might learn how to stop people from playing ball, but not much more than that.

I appreciate unique and original thought. Good job.

Stop the oppression! Stop the human rights violations! The United Nations should step in and impose sanctions on Israel for the cruel way it treats Palestinian children!

Alright, what did Israel do now? If the United Nations does not have enough to complain about against Israel, what would we now like to add to their list?

It seems that some Palestinian kids playing football (soccer) near the security wall somehow kicked the ball over the wall. Now they are upset the ball is lost and have turned to the United Nations saying their human rights have been trampled and they cannot even play ball - Israel must give them their ball back!

That's right - the ball that was probably lost in the weeds on the Israeli side of the fence, or driven over by a car on the highway, was really stolen by the Israelis and withheld so as to oppress these poor kids.

What kid of soccer players are these kids anyway, kicking the ball so high that it sailed over the security wall?

According to Ynetnews, the kids sent a letter to the president of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon, complaining about the loss of the ball.

A group of Palestinian children has sent a simple letter to UN Secretary General Ban-Ki moon, asking for a ball that had been kicked over their side of the West Bank security fence be returned to them, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported Sunday.

Several days ago, a Palestinian boy named Amir, was playing soccer with his friends in Kafr Sur, near Tulkarem, when one of his free kicks went astray and caused the ball to land in Israeli territory.
The children said the Israelis were infringing on their rights by not giving them their ball back, or letting them retrieve it by themselves.

The youths also wrote to UN chief Ban Ki-moon that they have the legal right to play on their territory without restrictions. They said they feared they would never get the ball back.

they have the legal right to play on their territory without restrictions? yes they do, and they should. Did someone stop them from playing? They kicked the ball into a neighboring country, one they are not allowed into, by their own governments rules (in agreement with Israel) - that does not stop them from playing ball in their own country. If I am in the Golan Heights and kick a ball over the border into Syria, is it a human rights issue that i cannot cross over and get it back?

They feared they would never get the ball back.. poor babies. Go spend 70 shekels and buy a new ball. The ball probably was lost a long time ago when it crossed over the wall...

The caption on the attached photo reads "The children playing with a replacement ball (Photo: Ma'an)"


replacement ball? it is not anywhere near as good as the original. They suffer by having to play with a replacement ball. These kids will need years of therapy for being forced to play with a replacement ball.


a bunch of crybabies. or else its a stupid attempt by some marketing person at a PR victory over cruel Israel.. either way they are a bunch of stupid crybabies. Get a life. chip in a few shekel per kid and buy yourselves a new stinkin ball - or get some European friend to buy it for you. Maybe start a Kickstarter account to raise money for your stupid ball (I am sure plenty of Israelis would even chip in). Maybe for your brain surgery as well.

National teams of countries that play in international tournaments are made up of the best players from the various internal leagues of any given country. Unlike a regular team in a regular league, where they can hire foreign players, as per the rules of the league, the national team is only made up of local players, citizens of the state, and not foreign players.

In a country like Israel, such a simple rule is not so simple. In Israel we have many people who live here, many of whom might have even been here for many generations, yet do not hold Israeli citizenship. The Druze in the Golan Heights are one example. Many of these Druze have chosen to not take Israeli citizenship, due to their familial ties with people in Syria or for other reasons. You can find similar examples all over the country, be it anti-zionists who are Arabs or Jews, or be it people who find it more practical to not be an Israeli citizen for either tax reasons, travel reasons, or other reasons.

So what do you do when one of those local residents but non-citizens wants to, and is good enough to, play on the national team?

While it has not been a problem until now, wait long enough and it is sure to come up. And sure enough it has.

A player from the Maccabi Haifa team, Weaam Amasha, a Golan Druze, has no Israeli citizenship, yet qualified for the Israel national team.

FIFA announced it would allow Amasha to play for the Israel national team. MK Michael Ben-Ari is appealing the decision. Ben-Ari sent a letter to FIFa urging them to disqualify Amasha.

Ben Ari wrote (source: Ynetnews):

that Amasha does not hold an official Israeli identification card in principle, because he does not recognize the existence of the state.
The member of Knesset noted that any other country would have regarded him as a fifth column, adding that there was no precedent for a player being admitted to a national team without holding a passport or identification card.
In the letter, Ben-Ari demanded that Amasha be allowed on the team only after he agrees to carry an Israeli identification card.

If he does not want to be considered Israeli, I wonder why he would want to represent Israel in the first place.  While Ben-Ari makes a good point about the need to be a citizen, one must admit that most countries do not suffer from the same situation in which Israel exists. In essence, FIFA has allowed this to be a national team of non-nationals.

Israelis in general wont care. If Amasha scores enough goals, they'll be happy he is on the team. If he does not produce, they will mutter how he should not have been let on.

This is just strange. A fellow named Gilad Shalit has registered to play professional soccer (football) for an Arab team. No, it is not THE Gilad Shalit playing for the Gaza National Team. It is a different Gilad Shalit playing goalie for the team from Umm El Fahm.

From Ynetnews:

The new goalkeeper of the Ahva Umm al-Fahm soccer team is already used to seeing people burst into tears after meeting him. That's what happens when your name is Gilad Shalit.


Shalit, 21, recently joined the Arab team as its only Jewish player after playing for Maccabi Barkai. He grew up in the northern community of Mei Ami and served in the IDF Armored Corps, just like the kidnapped soldier.


Father of captive soldier Gilad Shalit goes before Paris' Criminal Court against 'Hamas heads responsible for abduction'
Full story
Last Wednesday, when the team's secretary tried to register the new player with the Israel Football Association, he received the same familiar response.


"I asked the IFA secretary to register him," said the team's secretary, Dafer Mahmid. "She picked up his card and was shocked. She went aside, took off her glasses, and burst into tears."


From his very first training session with the team, Shalit felt like one of the guys. He just had one request from his teammates. "I asked them not to call me Gilad Shalit," he said. "Gilad is enough. It's not something to joke about."


On Saturday, ahead of the team's match against Hapoel Arara, Shalit appeared satisfied. "I feel great here," he said. "I love Umm al-Fahm, the atmosphere and the people. What more does one need?"


The match ended with Umm al-Fahm trouncing Arara 7-1.


The new player has raised hopes among Ahva Umm al-Fahm's fans to restore the glory days of local soccer team Hapoel Umm al-Fahm. But alongside the sports-related aspirations, the goalkeeper and team have greater and more important hopes.


"I pray that in one of the upcoming matches you'll be able to take a photo of me together with Gilad Shalit," the goalkeeper concluded.

He must be in a strange situation, every time he goes anywhere...Hopefully he will have a successful career. Maybe his name will be said so many times that it will raise awareness and lead to Gilad Shalit, the other one, being released. You never know from where it might come...

As we all know by now, Silvan Shalom is heading a committee investigating the viability of implementing the "long weekend", having Sundays off, in Israel.

Personally, I think it is a great idea. On a personal level, on a religious level, on a cultural level. The economics I don't know about - it sounds like a good idea on an economic level as well, but the experts seem to be divided on that issue.

At a conference to discuss the issue among mayors, MKs, Ministers, rabbis, businessmen and others, the director of the football (soccer) league, Avi Luzon, and the director of Maccabi Tel Aviv, Shimon Mizrachi, came out in support of the initiative of the long weekend.

Luzon said that they support the long weekend initiative in order to enable religious fans to be a part of the various sports activities and events. (source: Kikar)

This would also help athletes like Snir Goata and many others...

Shabbos is in the news again, this time from an entertainment perspective.

The Big Brother (Israeli version) tv show has been trying for a few years already to land a religious or even a haredi personality a spot on the show. It has not worked out until now, but this year they seem to be as close as ever to succeeding. they have contacted two very high profile personalities, one of whom might actually say yes.

1. Big Brother contacted Itamar Ben-Gvir to join the show. Ben-Gvir refused, citing Shabbos as the main problem, saying he would not sacrifice his ideals, especially keeping Shabbos, just for same tv ratings, and even for keeruv rechokim. (source: Kikar)

2. Big Brother also contacted Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, head of ZAKA and a well-known haredi askan, about joining the show. Meshi-Zahav seems to be interested in saying yes. He said that if he can see it as an opportunity for keeruv rechokim, bringing together different parts of the nation, and making a kiddush Hashem, then he would accept the offer. The station would have to work with him and figure out a way to enable his participation while ensuring no breach of tzniyus and his ability to keep Shabbos remains intact. (source: Kikar)

I would be curious to see how this works out. I wait for word on whether or not these issues are somehow worked out.

3. An Israeli football/soccer player has been in the process of coming closer to Judaism and has recently been keeping Shabbos. As a result, he turned down offers from teams in the higher level leagues because they play their games on Shabbos. he accepted an offer with a team in the lower league because they play on Friday.

Snir Goata has said that even if he would receive an offer from a European team such as Real Madrid he would reject it because of Shabbos. Goata claims that there are many very talented athletes who don't reveal their true abilities because of chillul shabbos. Many players, Goata says, have to leave the sport or only play in the lower leagues because of Shabbos. (source: Srugim)

This is definitely unusual. A haredi yeshiva in Jerusalem has founded a youth soccer team that will compete in the city league and tournaments.

Mynet reports that Yeshivas Darchei Torah of Jerusalem, founded a few years ago by Rabbi Yoni Yisrael, for the purpose of learning while training the boys in vocational skills, has founded a soccer team. The team has been practicing for a city-wide tournament starting next week. As Mynet says, the team players wear their black yarmulkes, tzitzis and peyos, and have the support of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team.

The rosh yeshiva says he decided to do this because the yeshiva boys love following the Beitar Jerusalem team. They founded the team and were put in contact with the fitness administrator of the youth department of Beitar Jerusalem  He began training them, and they have developed a special relationship. They have even been allowed to train on the teams home field, and the team has considered donating equipment to the youth team. The trainer says these boys show more respect for the trainer than the average teams.

The main halachic question should be, I think, if the vuvuzela is kosher to be used as a shofar on Rosh Hashana.

As far as I can tell it would not be kosher. Mostly because it would be putting the baal tokiei'a into a great sakana as he drives everyone mad with the monotonous vuvuzela blow, they might turn on him and beat him senseless.

There were some questions that were asked regarding the halachic aspects of watching the Mondeal, aka World Cup.

We will go in halachic order. One question, presented to Rav Baruch Efrati of Bar Ilan University, is whether there is any halachic problem with watching the Mondeal in general.

Rav Efrati's answer was that there is no problem with watching the Mondeal once in a while. The sport is not a violent one (that statement seems to not be including the behavior of the fans), nor is it based on negative values. Watching the Mondeal can be considered a blessed part of a happy life whose foundation is serving Hashem.

The second question posed was to Rav Dov Lior. The question was whether one could record the games that are broadcast on Sabbos, to be watched after Shabbos.

Rav Lior's answer was that the only way it can be done is by setting up all the recording equipment and television before Shabbos. That seemed obvious that you cannot turn it no on Shabbos, so you must have a timer set to turn it on. In addition, Rav Lior says, you can only set it to record from a foreign broadcast and not an Israeli broadcast that uses Jews working on Shabbos. As long as the satellite station or sports cable station does not employ Jews, your recording the broadcast will not be causing chilul shabbos.

Enjoy the game!

This is just too funny to not post...

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Sport Report - Soccer Debate - Marc Fisher & Mark Starr
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Fox News

The first is a video of a game that took place Monday in Europe. An Israeli plays for the Liverpool team. Yossi Benayoun is his name. He scored a hat-trick (I know what that means from hockey - 3 goals) and added 2 assists... This is the first hat trick of the Champions League season and the first of an Israeli player in the league... (I am no soccer/football fan, but it is newsworthy and his athletic abilities should be applauded)..

the second clip was of the biggest news item of the week in Israel. A match between Beitar Jerusalem and some other team (I think Maccabbi Haifa but I am not sure) was the setting. As you can see in the clip they chose to memorialize the murder of Yitzchak Rabin at the game by having the teams wear shirts saying "Dai La'alimut" - no more violence. As they announce the memorial that Yitzchak Rabin was murdered, a section of Beitar fans broke out in cheers and booed Rabin and cheered Amir. (I first saw the Beitar clip at the Muqata)

The Labor Union called for a general strike today. That pretty much means the country services have been shut down. The reason is because the problem from a few months ago regarding unpaid municipal workers has still not been resolved, despite government promises many times to resolve it.

They rescheduled the strike a few times already and after the government not coming through on their promises another time, the Histadrut finally decided not to give them any more chances but to show they are serious. So we have a major strike shutting down the country right now. Hopefully it will be resolved quickly and things can get back to the normal level of inefficiency!

The strike was originally called to begin at 6am this morning. They compromised to push it off until 9am to allow a few extra hours for last minute negotiations. Until 9am nothing was shut down and no services were delayed. Everything (evertything that opens before 9am that is) worked normally until 9am. At 9am whatever was working in the public sector then shut down.

Everything, that is, except for one thing. The trains. Of all the striking authorities, everyone provided their services to the public until 9am except for the trains. People who went for earlier trains found the doors to the stations locked and signs saying they are on strike.

The Labor Union has announced that even if the strike continues, they will allow flights from England to land. The reason is the upcoming soccer (football for you non-Americans) match between Israel and England. They are expecting a lot of English fans to fly in and have decided that they should open the airport to these English hooligans.

At the same time, they are still undecided as to whether they will allow flights for 900 students returning from Poland (March of the Living) to land. That is aside from all the people travelling for personal reasons and business reasons who are stranded. The English soccer fans are more important. Soccer is a national emergency.

It is all a matter of priorities.