Yes, it is the annual World Wide Wrap, upon which date (now fixed at Super Bowl Sunday) we Conservative Jews reacquaint ourselves with the mitzvah of tefillin.
With bagels and coffee we did so this morning at Congregation B'nai Israel. Tens of thousands of our landsman and -women all over the world also laid tefillin, each in his (or her; we're Conservative) respective time zone.
And speaking of respect (which technically we weren't, but so what?) here's a song from Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers titled Athiests Don't Have No Songs.
Just in case your video player is broken, Abq Jew has thoughtfully provided the lyrics to The Athiest Hymnal below, with certain key phrases highlighted. Please take notes. There may be a quiz later.
Christians have their hymns and pages,
Hava Nagila’s for the Jews,
Baptists have the rock of ages,
Atheists just sing the blues.
Romantics play Claire de Lune,
Born agains sing “He is risen,”
But no one ever wrote a tune,
For godless existentialism.
For Atheists there’s no good news. They’ll never sing a song of faith.
In their songs they have a rule: the “he” is always lowercase.
The “he” is always lowercase.
Some folks sing a Bach cantata,
Lutherans get Christmas trees,
Atheist songs add up to nada,
But they do have Sundays free.
Pentecostals sing to heaven,
Coptics have the books of scrolls,
Numerologists can count to seven,
Atheists have rock and roll.
For Atheists there’s no good news. They’ll never sing a song of faith.
In their songs they have a rule: the “he” is always lowercase.
The “he” is always lowercase.
Atheists don’t have no songs.
Christians have their hymns and pages,Jews, of course, are forbidden d'Rabbanan [by Rabbinic rule] (some say d'Orayta [by the Torah]) to play football. From ShemaYisrael.com:
Hava Nagila’s for the Jews,
Baptists have the rock of ages,
Atheists just sing the blues.
Catholics dress up for Mass,
And listen to, Gregorian chants.
Atheists just take a pass, watch football in their underpants.
Watch football in their underpants.
Atheists don’t have no songs.
Rambam says that to keep oneself healthy and vigorous is a commandment from the Torah. We are obligated keep away from anything that damages or lessens the body. This is part of serving Hashem [Hilchos Dayos 4:1]. One does not have permission to harm himself ... [Choshen Mishpot 420:31]. The Chofetz Chayim [Likutai Amorim 13] says that this halacha shows that we are not our own "property," we BELONG TO HASHEM. Hillel made a point to keep himself clean and to eat adequately. When asked why, he said that the body is created in Hashem's image, it is for serving Him during one's fleeting lifetime and it is obligatory to take good care of the body [Vayikra Raba 34:3]Abq Jew notes the irony that, with all the security surrounding the Mercedes Benz Superdome (the formal name of the venue), the only people virtually guaranteed to suffer quality-of- if not actual life-threatening injuries during the Super Bowl are:
the football players.
The Boston Globe recently published an article by James Carroll titled Football concussions: The problem lies at the heart of the sport. Carroll reports:
Numerous studies have established in recent years that brain trauma routinely occurs at every level of football. NFL veterans show vastly disproportionate rates of neurological disease, like Alzheimer’s, as well as depression that can lead to suicide. Bulked-up professionals throw far more weight at one another than ever before, but researchers have found also that tens of thousands of high school football players — in excess, perhaps, of 100,000 — sustain concussions every year.Are Jews even allowed to watch football? Abq Jew is not sure.
But Abq Jew is willing to bet (another questionable activity for Jews, although it appears to be permissible so long as one does not derive his living solely from it) that no Jews ever willingly attended Roman gladiator games.
Perhaps someday we will outlaw football as just another cruel and immoral form of combat-as-entertainment. But in the meantime:
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