The Matzav Shmoooze: Super Bowl Fressing Embarrassment

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Dear Editor,

In the past, I used to get nauseous. Now I am just plain sick.

I am not a kana’i and I generally don’t worry about what people do, but isn’t there a gevul to certain things?

In the past, some frum publication published advertisements for their specials in honor of Super Bowl Sunday. Those were embarrassing. This year, even in Torah circles, some stores that would have never dreamed of doing so simply wrote “Super Specials” for February 7, as if we’re all dumb and don’t know what they mean.

Worst of all was listening to a radio show that was preceded by a ten minute gushing by some workers in a supermarket take-out about all the mouthwatering wagu and beef and whatever else they have going for Super Bowl Sunday. The best part was that the nauseating obsessive discussion about Super Bowl Sunday fare was followed by a discussion about getting kids into schools. As if we are supposed to take such a discussion seriously after being treated to a ten minute embarrassing discussion about pigging out in general and especially on Super Bowl Sunday.

I am not here to tell people to watch the game or not. Do what you think Hashem would want. But please, can we be spared from the embarrassing ads, both in print and on air, that reflects so poorly on frum Jews?

Maybe I’m just an old-timer and the world has passed me by. Maybe there’s no hope and I should just give up and fade into the sunset. Let me know what you think. Maybe it’s the world that has it right and I’m the one who’s out of mind.

Sick to my Stomach

Brooklyn, NY

{Matzav.com Newscenter}


27 COMMENTS

    • The Kelm Talmud Torah had a fence around it to keep it insulated from outside shtusim like this.
      It’s a shame you and the first commenter don’t understand the concept of taking mussar. It’s also a shame that there are no more places like Kelm , or even Shuls dedicated to advancement through mussar.

  1. Who cares? If the Dolphins would be in it, iz ein sach. But since my team is not nogia, so who cares? Waste of time to watch.

  2. Need to chill out… Don’t be one of those people who goes around saying what Torah is. Certain things are halacha, and certain things are your own personal interpretations. If a person goes and insists that it’s critical to be well versed in science and the Torah demands of us to study nifla’os haBorei, it would also be wrong. Each to their own Hashkafa.

  3. “In the past, I used to get nauseous. Now I am just plain sick.”
    Refuah sheleima go see a doctor why are you bothering us with your nonsense?

  4. I don’t understand (maybe I’m too new fashioned).

    What is wrong with watching a football game? I agree that the half-time show isn’t appropriate. So skip that!!

    Not everyone can learn all day!!

    And what’s wrong with eating while you’re watching??

  5. Couldn’t agree more.
    The madreiga of klal Yisroel is going down lower and lower every day. Rachmana L.tzlan

    Don’t know where klal Yisroel as a nation will be holding in a year from now. How can we expect Mashiach to come if we are not even close to the madreiga we need to be on to be in Hashem shchina with Mashiach coming?

    • The Gemara in Chelek actually says that Moshiach will either come in a generation that is kulo tzadikim or kulo reshaim. So take it easy

  6. totally agree with his point. Of course there are yiddin on different levels but if the drum torah publications are advertising this then what kind of example are we setting for our children? i watch the game and enjoy sports but I would never put any emphasis on it like walk out my house with jersey on or even put a jersey on because it sends wrong message to the children. nothing wring with some kosher fun but there is something wrong when you turn it into something thats a part of your life

    • It’s not bob.
      But few people want to question their actions, let alone change them.
      Everyone posting against the author knows TV is assur, even a football game has prust ads.
      But rather than recognize the Emes of his words, they vilify him to make their own rationalizations easier.

  7. “a radio show that was preceded by a ten minute gushing by some workers in a supermarket take-out about all the mouthwatering wagu and beef and whatever else they have going for Super Bowl Sunday.”

    That radio show is by a fellow from Manhattan. Although he comes from Brooklyn and his father learned by Rav Aharon Kotler, he made aliyah to Manhattan and Modern Orthodoxy, so don’t be too nispoel or surprised by it. He is trying to make money, it is a business for him. Don’t think you will get a bren in Yiddishkeit from such programs. It is very different from the more Torahdik radio programs.

  8. Criticizing ‘them’ , what other Jews, do and publications print is the best way to remove the focus of one’s personal areas that may need improvement.

    Where does a secular radio announcer get into the picture?

    Anyway, I’m a Yankee fan, so no Superbowl parties, etc… for me.
    Good Shabbos, and Good Chodesh

  9. It is said that most people spend too much time worrying about their own gashmius and on others’ ruchnius, but should instead worry about their own ruchnius and the gashmius of others.

  10. It may not be ossur according to halacha to watch football or other sports and to sit and fress all kinds of fresseri while doing so, but in my not so humble opinion, it is not in the spirit of the law. It is chukas hagoyim. I’m all for playing sports for the healthful aspect of it, but to be a couch potato watching some hunks run around with a ball to me is just plain shtuss.

  11. I refuse to patronize businesses that advertise superbowl specials. I want to support bnei torah. A true ben torah would never run such advertisements. I remember my rabbeim saying that every ben torah needs to recharge their batteries once in a while but the difference between stam a yid and a true ben torah is that the stam yid will go to Disneyworld while the ben torah will go to a place where his neshama will not experience a yiridah. Same for relaxing. Everyone needs to relax. A ben torah will relax in a way that will not bring a yiridah to his level of ruchniyus. Whether one wants to admit it or not, watching a bunch of goyim acting like vildeh chayes and rooting for them and lifting them up on a pedestal as if they are role models, forget about half time, will experience some sort of yiridah.

  12. Along time ago, in my yeshiva I was severely criticized for for appreciating non-jewish music, even though what I was listening to was prog-fusion without words, so one could hardly accuse me of listening to anything really inapropriate. They said of Chick Corea and John Mclaughlin that they were “Behemos-dik”. Eventually I came to understand that everyone should have a passtime of some sort because it you have to have something to unwind with in order to be emotinally healthy. Passtimes also make one more “human” and less arrogant. They help you empathize with others and experience things from alternate points of view. All these are valuable for Avodat Hashem, and they are positive. When it coms to your passtime, if the superbowl turns you on then I have no objection. And besides, there is much to be learned by watching the way a team works together for a common goal with an intense sense of purpose, especially when the stakes are high. However, I agree with the “old timer” that one’s pastimes need to have an overall positive effect. Watching the game can make you a better Jew if you know how to do it right, and at the very least a better person. And if not that one should at the very least come away relaxed and energized for the greater purpose. This, I think, has gotten quite lost in the commercialism, mindless excitations and overeating associated with he game. Its not about frum vs frei or refined vs coarse or Torah vs non-jewish culture. Its about consumerism, which is a wider cultural phenomenon that reduces human beings to mindless purchasers and eaters, and makes that one dimensional experience the whole of human worth. That is certainly not the Torah way. So enjoy the game and ride it as far it will take you on your journey, but don’t fall into the trap of mindless gluttony. And lastly I think the old timer deserves a Yashar Koah, and perhaps a complementary dose of Pepto-bismol, alka-seltzer or the like. As for myself, I need to get back to this awesome video of “Liquid Tension Experiement” shredding at the speed of light! Mamesh a Mechayah!

  13. first worry about the jewish things like pesach hotels and fressing and then worry about the next step. hearing them advertised and all they talk about is their 25 professional caterers they will bring in is more nauseating than this.

  14. To #17,#16,#6,
    “Each to their own Hashkafa.”

    So pluralism it is?

    #21

    People do need breaks ,

    as long they’re aiming for the common goal

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