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Religion or hockey?


mathieu30

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I'm very curious to know the rabbi's logic. It is contrary to everything I know about the law.

it's actually a great question to debate. I would've loved to be in that room during the meeting between father rubin and the rabbi's

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I'm very curious to know the rabbi's logic. It is contrary to everything I know about the law.

I guess the Rabbis were just like "this is very important to him, let him break a couple of Shabbats while he tries to fulfil his dream." If it's a question of Jewish law then he's breaking it, no question.

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There comes a time where if your parents are standing between you and your dreams, you have to have the strength to tell them to either stand aside willingly or you'll mow right over them. If this kid doesn't want it bad enough to toss his parents' approval and religion aside to make it, then he probably isn't driven enough to make it to 'the show' anyways.

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There comes a time where if your parents are standing between you and your dreams, you have to have the strength to tell them to either stand aside willingly or you'll mow right over them. If this kid doesn't want it bad enough to toss his parents' approval and religion aside to make it, then he probably isn't driven enough to make it to 'the show' anyways.

Why do you just assume that it is his parents forcing him to adhere to his religion? To devout people, there is nothing that is more important than God and religion. It's not something that this kid can just toss aside. I'm sure it kills him that his faith may come between him and the NHL, but if he is devout as he appears to be, then the choice will be a difficult one, but a quick one. To say he doesn't have the drive to make the NHL because of his faith is an asinine and intolerant thing to say. If he wasn't a driven person, then he wouldn't even be trying so hard to make hockey fit into his way of life. Heck, he wouldn't adhere to his religion so strictly if he wasn't a driven person. It's not easy to follow a religion with such strict rules.

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I think the posters on this site familiar with orthodox judaism will certainly already know this, but I figured I might as well post this for those who have not had close interaction with this world.

Strict, formalistic Judaism is specifically not about integrating with the "other nations." One can make a legitimate argument that that many of the halachic (procedural) laws were to no small degree designed so as to make living amongst gentiles untenable. As Fanpuck alludes, the choice to abandon hockey in favour of Sabbath is a quick and obvious decision for the devout. I would suggest further that not only is it the obvious solution, it is the solution desired by the rule maker (God or the Rabbis depending on your theological bent).

Modern interpretation of Judaism (primarily the Reform movement, but also the Conservatives) gained much traction in lessening the daily burden imposed by the Halachah. Although not dominant in Montreal (at least when I lived there), Reform has become the de facto Jewish authority for much of American Jewry. That is why most of your Jewish friends carry wallets, turn on the lights, drive a car or play hockey on Saturday.

For most new world Jews, the 2000 year trip through the Diaspora made the laws of separation untenable... and frankly undesirable, but the orthodox have maintained that separation. While groups like the Satmars (hasidic) have assiduously maintained their homogeneous communities, non-orthodox Jews have generally rejected cloistered living and instead intersperse themselves amongst "the other nations."

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Why do you just assume that it is his parents forcing him to adhere to his religion? To devout people, there is nothing that is more important than God and religion. It's not something that this kid can just toss aside. I'm sure it kills him that his faith may come between him and the NHL, but if he is devout as he appears to be, then the choice will be a difficult one, but a quick one. To say he doesn't have the drive to make the NHL because of his faith is an asinine and intolerant thing to say. If he wasn't a driven person, then he wouldn't even be trying so hard to make hockey fit into his way of life. Heck, he wouldn't adhere to his religion so strictly if he wasn't a driven person. It's not easy to follow a religion with such strict rules.

Way to go FanPuck. I completely agree with your assessment. I've held off commenting on this thread for this long just because I'm also a devout person (Muslim in my case) and I didn't have the energy to formulate what I wanted to say in a well-thought out way, but you basically hit the nail on the head with most of what you said.

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