My position was that folks would have to make their own choices: either the minyan or the game
MY colleague Yisroel Besser’s February 7 “Voice in the Crowd” column is an important statement about the pitfalls of attempting to live simultaneously as a committed Jew and as a member of society at large. Calling a spade a spade, it should be painful but required reading for those of us who sincerely try to live seamlessly in these two — and occasionally opposing — worlds.
In this Super Bowl season, Besser reminded me of an incident in my Atlanta shul many years ago. It was Super Bowl Sunday, and the younger members of our daily minyan proposed that we adjust our Sunday Minchah-Maariv schedule to accommodate those who wanted to watch the full game; i.e., to daven Minchah before the game began, and Maariv right after the game ended.
They knew that I enjoyed sports and were confident that I would agree. To their great disappointment and consternation, I refused to consider this change. My position was that folks would have to make their own choices: either the minyan or the game, but we would not change the davening schedule because of the big game. They tried to persuade me of the reasonableness of their request, but I stood my ground. And so it was. We kept to our regular schedule, the minyan was somewhat thinner than normal, but even some of the die-hard fans showed up. I had made my point.
What was my point? That it’s fine to try to live in two worlds, as long as we know that they are not equal worlds, and that there are red lines that should not be crossed.
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