Damar Hamlin and my desensitized soul
The distress of the Buffalo Bills’ young safety surfaces questions about how we watch the NFL and view its players
by William C. Rhoden, Jan 4, 2023
https://andscape.com/features/damar-hamlin-and-my-desensitized-soul/
Monday evening I realized, with sadness, the extent to which I had become desensitized to the real-life violence of our national pastime. I imagine that many of the 70,000 fans inside the stadium in Cincinnati were ready to settle back in and watch more of what promised to be a rock’em sock’em football game. Indeed, after Hamlin had been taken off the field by ambulance, the Buffalo defense, perhaps in a conditioned response, seemed headed back onto the field.
Mercifully, reason and compassion prevailed. The players were ordered off the field and into their respective locker rooms. I don’t doubt for a second that there was some sentiment to resume the game. Someone, perhaps Troy Vincent, executive vice president of football operations for the NFL, insisted that the league could not in good conscious send players back out to the field. They had been traumatized and were living through a living nightmare that was only going to worsen.
But what was I thinking? What was I feeling before the gravity of the situation became apparent?
When would play resume?
שו"ת אגרות משה יורה דעה חלק ד סימן יא
אם אסור מצד בחוקותיהם לא תלכו, ללכת לתיאטרון ואיצטדיון ספורט בימינו?
באלו שנקראו תיאטרון שעושין שם ענייני שחוק, וכן איצטדיון, שהם המקומות שמשחקין ספארט, לא שייכי בהו עניין ובחוקותיהם לא תלכו (ויקרא קדושים י"ח י"ג)...כשאיכא טעם למה שעושין, כהא דאיצטדינין וכרקום שאיתא ׁ(בע"ז דף י"ח ע"ב) שהוא לליצנות, ליכא בזה משום ע"ז, אף שהוא דבר אסור מצד איסור ליצנות, וכל ההולך שם עובר באיסור מושב לצים ובביטול תורה - לא רק על זמן זה - אלא שגורם לו להיות בטל לגמרי מתורה.
ליצנות
וביאר הרמח"ל בספרו "מסילת ישרים", ש"זהו דבר שהדין נותן אותו, כי מי אשר מתפעל מן ההתבוננות ומן הלימודים, אינו צריך שיתיסר בגופו..., אך הלצים שאינם מתפעלים מן התוכחות מפני ליצנותם, אין להם תיקון אלא השפטים". על ידי הליצנות מזהה האדם את עצמו עם הבהמיות שבו, ובמצב שכזה לא יועילו לו התוכחות, לכן "נכונו ללצים שפטים" (משלי יט) - לשבור את הכח הבהמי שהשתלט על האדם או אז יחכם וישמע מוסר. אבל כל זמן שאין הדעה מושלת בו אי אפשר להנהיגו לפי שהוא כשיכור.
ביטול תורה
תנו רבנן ההולך לאיצטדינין...הרי זה מושב לצים ועליהם הכתוב אומר (תהלים א, א) אשרי האיש אשר לא הלך וגו' כי אם בתורת ה' חפצו הא למדת. שדברים הללו מביאין את האדם לידי ביטול תורה.
Bittul Torah
The Sages taught: With regard to one who goes to stadiums [le’itztadinin] where people are killed in contests with gladiators or beasts...this is categorized as “the seat of the scornful”; and with regard to such places the verse states: “Happy is the man that has not walked in the council of the wicked, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the Torah of the Lord” (Psalms 1:1–2). You learn from here that these matters bring a person to dereliction of the study of Torah, since had he not sat in “the seat of the scornful,” he would delight in the study of Torah.
Judaism, baseball, and the drive for normal
by Rabbi Joshua S. Finkelstein
July 22, 2020
https://jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com/judaism-baseball-and-the-drive-for-normal/
Dr. Solomon Schechter, president of the Jewish Theological Seminary, once told my young grandfather, Rabbi Louis Finkelstein, then a student at the seminary, “Unless you can play baseball, you’ll never get to be a rabbi in America.”
My grandfather never played baseball and never really understood the game. He told me he once went to a game but didn’t enjoy it; the noise kept interrupting his thinking. My grandfather ultimately was more interested in the Book of Ruth than Babe Ruth and Talmud more than a triple play.
I grew up in different generation, as an avid Mets fan who still had a keen interest in Talmud, and the Schechter quote was always a source of amusement to me. I never felt that a rabbi had to know baseball, and I don’t believe that Schechter did either. What he was conveying to my young grandfather was the belief that in America, or anyplace else, a rabbi had to be part of the people and aware of the culture in which he or she was living.
...You see, these events are more than games. They are a beacon of hope and a reminder that life continues even in a pandemic.