Every once in a while, perhaps one should put down the texts and actually venture out into the environment. You can go for a walk... or you can bike in the desert heat... Here are reports from Hazon's Israel Ride 2006, "cycling for peace, partnership and environmental protection."
Kaspit
Yes, I've neglected the blog in favor of other text studies. Personally I'm doing fine and venturing outdoors myself at times. Maybe I can add blogging in at some point...
Fate spits in the face of The Good. Yesterday, the Talmud's daf yomi readings included:
"Let him spill the produce that becomes soiled to the ground" (Shabbat 142a)
"Shake the pillow so that the money will fall off"
"A motley crew will create another bunch of mongrels" (142a)
"We shall pour water on filth until it disappears" (142b), and, last but not least,
"Roast a goose and throw its intestines entrails to the cat..."
Today, we enter the 22nd chapter of tractate Shabbat. Sample quote::
"If you bleed a beast for the sake of healing, the blood will not be a conduit for impurity." (144a)
Not to mention the vulgar imagery of R. Huna son of R. Yehoshua and Rav. Ashi at the end of chapter 21.
Alas! The Red Sox lost, the Yankees won. The Red Sox have not only fallen from 1st place, now they are also trailing in the contest for the AL wild card.
Mudville indeed,
Kaspit
P.S. Thanks to Daniel and ADDeRabbi for suggesting edits.
Gabe Kapler was hustling around the bases on Thursday -- then he suddenly collapsed in the infield due to a ruptured Achilles tendon. Ouch! I guess poor Gabe's out for the season. Refu'ah shleymah (speedy recovery) to Gabe.
Also, a belated refu'ah shleymah to Adam Greenberg, the unlucky guy who got horribly beaned facing his very first pitch in the majors. Cubs update here. His parents and three siblings were watching, imagine how they felt.
So, will Rabbi Moses Feinstein zt"l be posthumously rethinking his ruling to allow professional baseball under Jewish law? Well, Reb Moshe didn't overturn his own precedents often. Adam and Gabe, maybe he'll put in a good word for your with the heavenly front office....
On a happier note, the Red Sox organization was kind enough to release this very Secret, Exclusive and Terrific photo of the three Jewish Red Sox fielders who played together on August 12th. Thank you, O' kindly RedSox.com !
Good shabbos,
Kaspit
Hazardous contact sports, like Quidditch, may be off limits for observant Jews. Even skiing may be forbidden (per DB and (?) Rabbi Willig). Nevertheless, sports and exercise are supported by Jewish law (halakhah). So this is out of bounds:
"The town of Kiryat Sefer has between 20 and 30 thousand residents (at last count). They are now constructing their first swimming pool (see Kiddushin 29a). They have yet to construct a single basketball court." Recent post at On the Contrary!
Sample halakhic arguments in favor of sports as exercise:
"Rav Moshe [Feinstein] writes that providing a swimming pool for students in the summer constitutes an act of kindness, since they need a place to cool off in the heat and sometimes this can also bring them to exert themselves more in their Torah study." (Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir citing Igrot Moshe Even Ha-ezer IV:61)
"I would think that baseball, being a means of physical exercise that isn't too boring to expect a kid to pursue regularly, is a chiyuv di'Oraisa midin [duty directly from the Biblical law] 'vinishmartem mi'od linafshoseichem' [safeguard yourselves greatly]. Anyone who has a stationary bike collecting dust in the basement knows that the hardest part of exercise is making it interesting enough to make you keep at it. Baseball qualifies." R. Micha Berger, Jan 2000 Avodah list. [Trans mine.]
See also, Gedolim and ballplaying stories from Avodah.
Play ball,
Kaspit כספית
On August 12th, Red Sox players Gabe Kapler (below), Kevin Youkilis (right) and Adam Stern (left) played in the ninth inning against Texas. Perhaps the first time that three Jews took the field at the same time in major league baseball. Reports by The Forward and The Boston Globe did not clarify whether the players then formed a zimmun (quorum) and benched "Grace After Meals" at a celebratory dinner.
B'hatz'lakhah garba'im (Go Sox!),
Kaspit
PS Rumor has it that we'll see a Fleer (Jewish Major Leaguers) baseball card for these three magi by Chanuka!
Adam Stern (2-12-80) is adored by his hometown London, Ontario, where he went to St. Thomas Aquinas (!) High School. (Photo SoxProspects.) This Gabe Kapler fan site has many more photos. Youkilis hit by pitch 6-18-05 (AP photo).
Red Sox ace pitcher Matt Clement got hit upside the head by a line drive last Tuesday. While recuperating, he can check out the opinion of R. Moshe Feinstein on the hazards of professional baseball. Looking at the danger of getting hit by a pitch, R. Feinstein applies moral (halakhic) reasoning that treats the pitchers the same as the batters. R. Feinstein did not factor in the rare chance of the pitcher getting beaned by a hit. Still, it seems clear that a professional pitcher, once he consents to the chance of beaning a batter, also presumably consents to the lesser chance of being struck himself.
We wish Matt Clement a speedy recovery, a refu’ah shleymah.
Kaspit
Update: Clement will start on Thursday. B'hatzlakhah.
Baseball is clearly safer for high school children than basketball and soccer. Not surprisingly, football results in the most injuries: 35/100 players per season.[1] Quidditch is so safe that it didn’t even make the list. Here’s a chart:
Nevertheless, let’s keep in mind that noncontact sports still lead to many serious injuries that can be prevented. Following up on the post about Jewish law and the dangers of Quidditch, this data shows that school sports are quite hazardous. So fans should petition J. K. Rowling to give Hogwarts students, and esp. professionals, adequate protective equipment for Quidditch. See excerpt of study, below.[2] Play hard, play safe, nobody hurt.
Kaspit כספית
[1] Source: Injury patterns in selected high school sports: a review of the 1995-1997 seasons
(Powell, Barber-Foss, Journal of Athletic Training, 1999)
[2] From a study of injury surveillance in the DC area: "Findings. Seventeen percent (n = 2563) of all injuries occurred while participating in 1 of 6 sports (baseball/softball, basketball, biking, football, skating, and soccer) resulting in an event-based injury rate of 25.0 per 1000 adolescents…. Rates were higher in males for all sports. … Hospitalization was required in 2% of visits and there were no deaths. Of those requiring hospitalization, 51% involved other persons, 12% were equipment-related, and 8% involved poor field/surface conditions. Of all baseball injuries, 55% involved ball or bat impact often of the head. Basketball injuries included several injuries from striking against the basketball pole or rim or being struck by a falling pole or backboard. …. Of all football injuries, 48 (7%) involved being struck by an opponent's helmet and 63 (9%) involved inappropriate field conditions including falls on or against concrete, glass, or fixed objects. … There were 51 probable or clear assaults during sports and an additional 30 to 41 injuries from baseball bat assaults. ... Conclusions. Many sports including noncontact sports involved injuries of the head suggesting the need for improved head protection. … The 16% of sports injury visits and 20% of hospitalizations related to equipment and environmental factors suggest that at least this proportion of injury may be amenable to preventive strategies. …" (emphasis added)
Quidditch evokes several hypothetical problems in Jewish law (halakhah). Let’s briefly consider one hermercurial question: Is Quidditch a sport that is too dangerous to play?
(Here for more on Harry Potter.)
First, let us stipulate that Quidditch is not a sport that is intrinsically violent and, in effect, set up as a controlled/disciplined way for people to hurt each other, like boxing. Boxing involves much hitting, predictable wounding and, reciprocally, self-wounding. It is plausible in Jewish law to forbid such wounding, even for entertainment and with mutual consent. [1] (The Maccabiah games have baseball, not boxing.) Nevertheless, there have been many Jews in boxing, including Orthodox (?) boxer Dmitriy Salita.[2] [HT to this blog.]
UPDATE: Salita becomes first Jewish boxing champion in 30 years, HT Jew*school.
In Harry Potter, there have been serious injuries during Quidditch games -- but it’s no Roman circus (prohibited for spectators, too).[3] Can we agree that injuries during Quidditch are incidental to the design and functioning of the game? Nevertheless, like many sports, Quidditch may lead to serious injuries. For instance, players could collide midair or otherwise fall to the ground. To analyze such sports, we might turn to Rabbi Moses Feinstein, the consummate American poseq (decisor).
R. Feinstein wrote a teshuvah (responsum) on the hazards of playing baseball. The teshuvah was published in 1963, when there was a real danger of getting “beaned” by a pitcher.[4] Helmets were not required until 1971 and earflaps only later. Jewish major leaguers during this period included pitchers Ken Holtzman and Sandy Koufax. Anyway, R. Feinstein argues that batters can voluntarily submit to the chance of being beaned by a pitch in professional baseball. His cites one talmudic source: Bava Metzia 112 on Deut. 24:15. As an afterthought, R. Feinstein cites support for his position in a responsum of R. Ezekiel Landau (Noda bi-Yehudah 10) that permits hunting animals for the purposes of earning a living. R. Feinstein’s finding is based on two main criteria:
(1) Chances of severe injury. R. Feinstein assumes that the chance of serious injury in baseball is relatively distant (“one in several thousands”). Notably, R. Feinstein does not differentiate between harming and getting harmed (wounding and self-wounding). If it is acceptable for a batter to face 90+ mph fastballs, it is permissible for the pitcher to throw them. (That is, suicide and killing are both obviously forbidden by Jewish law… Reb Moshe does not comment here on the relative severity of either transgression.)
(2) Economic value of the activity. However, R. Feinstein gives his heter (permission) here for professional baseball only. A worker may consent to occupational hazards because they need to earn a livelihood (parnassah, which is commanded as a mitzvah).
How might R. Feinstein’s heter (permission) for professional baseball apply to school children and amateurs (cp. Quidditch)? (1) Reduced chance of harm. Ceteris paribus, school children would be prohibited from baseball. However, it is undeniable that school age children are not exposed to risks comparable to professional pitching. Furthermore, all baseball risks can be reduced by safety equipment. (Be sure your Little League is safe!) (2) Economic value of the activity. R. Feinstein quite likely would not approve comparable dangers for purely amateur sports. (Otherwise, why would he have limited his opinion to professionals?) Still, amateur sports might be condoned as comparable to professional baseball on various grounds. For instance, College and even Little League may be seen as a training ground for professional sports. Considering certain talmudic discussions, I believe that halakhah would permit apprentices and trainees to undergo reasonable occupational risks. [See my disclaimer if necessary.] In a more speculative vein, amateur sports may be seen as relevant networking (etc.) experience for earning a livelihood; if so, then R. Feinstein’s heter may apply to certain amateur baseball risks as well. (If recreational baseball is permitted by Jewish law.)
Now, what about Quidditch by school children at Hogwarts? (1) Chance of harm. I’ve only read Harry Potter books 1, 2, and half of 3, so far. Quidditch already has a track record of serious injuries, according to J. K. Rowling. However, the Quidditch injuries are mostly caused by outsiders (e.g., due to a spell or the appearance of Dementors). The game itself does not seem unusually dangerous. Flying, of course, is hazardous; in Harry Potter, though, flying falls within the halakhic category of a danger that is common to the multitude and acceptable because “The Lord preserves the simple” (cf. driving a car). In any case, the healing abilities of Madam Pomfrey et alia make up for the lack of safety equipment. So it seems likely that Quidditch is safer than professional baseball during the 1960’s. (2) Economic value. If Hogwarts is modeled on English schools, then sports offers training and networking for professional success. Furthermore, Quidditch is played professionally. Since wizards need to earn a livelihood, I’d argue that, from the standpoint of Jewish law, Quidditch adds sufficient economic value to justify its hazards even for amateur players.
(3) Caveat: informed consent. In his responsum, R. Feinstein emphasizes a key condition for his heter for professional baseball. All players must be playing of their own free will, with adequate knowledge of the dangers. If anyone plays Quidditch under duress due to Oliver Wood or the Dark Arts, then their exposure to the sport’s dangers cannot be condoned under Jewish law. By the same token, R. Feinstein warns that workers should not be running undue risks due to pressure by baseball managers and business owners. Occupational hazards without informed consent (MSDS's etc) are a non-starter.
Kaspit כספית
For background on Quidditch, Wikipedia has a “project” on the Harry Potter books. Warning: The beauty of Wikipedia is that anyone can contribute. However, this allows vandals to put up unexpected spoilers. They get eliminated soon but you might chance upon one. Unfortunately, this happened to me today.
[1] On cosmetic surgery, R. Moses Feinstein reads Maimonides as forbidding wounding when it is derech nitzayon, contentious. Reading Maimonides differently, R. Eliezer Waldenberg apparently disallows harsh contact sports, without regard to contentiousness. Other halakhic sources on boxing here.
[2] Best quote: "If anyone wants a whupping from me, they got to wait until after sundown."
[3] See comments in Hirhurim here about Roman circus and misc about Harry Potter.
[4] Curiously, R. Feinstein does not mention who asked him the baseball safety question. Chaim Potok preparing for the opening of The Chosen? Seriously, does anybody know the circumstances the prompted this responsum?
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
Recent Comments