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Observant Athletes Sit One Out
Driver Mike Ashley will not race on Yom Kippur
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More in The ShmoozeTo play or not to play, that is the question that Jewish athletes must grapple with each year during the High Holy Days. Race car driver Mike Ashley will sit on the sidelines on Yom Kippur this year, missing a qualifying race September 22 at the O’Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals in Dallas. The decision puts him at a significant disadvantage to secure a place in the top four who will advance the Countdown to One Powerade Championship, but Ashley is unwavering in his decision.
“Yom Kippur is the highest holiday of the year,” Ashley, a Long Island native, told The Shmooze. “If I qualify or not, it doesn’t matter. Winning a world championship or a race unethically wouldn’t be worthwhile to me.”
This is the second time in the 42-year-old’s career that he has faced this choice. Three years ago, Ashley sat out a qualifier in a different division, but he ended up winning that championship anyway.
On the baseball field, Mets right fielder Shawn Green will not play against the Florida Marlins on Yom Kippur, in keeping with past years when games were scheduled on the Day of Atonement. But the jury’s still out on Milwaukee Brewers slugger Ryan Braun, who is up for Rookie of the Year and who could become the first Jew ever to win that title, in either league. The Brewers still have a shot at winning the NL Central Division title, and they’re scheduled to play the Braves in Atlanta on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon. If Braun sits out, the Brewers’ starting line-up will be seriously weakened. At press time, Braun, whose father is Israeli, had not announced a decision.
Comments
A Jewish person is anyone who holds himself out to be such, just as a person born to Jewish parents who denies their heritage is not Jewish by religion.
Steve, your definition is very pc, but also very wrong. I'm sure your Rabbi would differ with your definition.
you go Mike! What a way to show the world that a jew can be an athlete, a doctor or a race car driver and still keep the faith! Awright!!!!
You mentioned, correctly, that David Newhan is a Jew but that he proposes to believe in Jesus. I would bet that Mr. Newhan is observing Yom Kippur and takes his Jewishness very seriously. Messianic Jews embrace their heritage and hold that believing in Jesus, an observant Jew himself, is very Jewish!
Oi! David Newhan AND Scott Schoenweiss should do the Mets a favor and go to shul tonight and tomorrow.
The Mets need good omen, to bring it home. Moreover, he may get his Shofar blown. Woodside, Queens
Oi! David Newhan AND Scott Schoenweiss should do the Mets a favor and go to shul tonight and tomorrow.
Oi! David Newhan AND Scott Schoenweiss should do the Mets a favor and go to shul tonight and tomorrow.
Messianic Jews may embrace their heritage but once you pray to someone other than God, elevating a man to the level of divinity...and bringing in all the idolatry of the cross.. well, that by definition isn't Judaism... based on the first of the Ten Commandments (the original 10, not the Christian 10).. Though shall have no other God before me.... Jesus may have been an observant Jew... he didn't pray to another man.
Speaking of race car drivers, there are two with intriguing names: Matt Kenseth and Tony Kanaan. Any Jewish stories there?
Radman, we Messianic Jews pray to G-d. We believe in one G-d as the Shema teaches and Yeshua(Jesus) taught. When asked what the greatest commandment was He replied: " Hear, O Israel, the L-RD our G-d, the L-RD is one,, and you are to love Adonai your G-d with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your understandingand with all your strength." The second is this: " You are to love your neighbor as yourself."
This was quoted from our Tenach. Yeshua did not come to abolish the Torah and the prophets but to fulfill it.
I do not pray to a man but to Elohim.
Concerning the commandments, there are only 10 given by Moses at Mt. Sinai. How do the christian 10 differ from the original? That's like saying a christian Ford is different than a Jewish one; they both come from the same manufacturer!
Yeshua was not a christian but a Jew who has been maligned by history and misinterpreted by the church. He is one of our own and must be reclaimed.
By the way, he prayed to G-d, the Father as Messianics do.
Blah, blah, blah on the Messianic Jewish nonsense. An apostate from any manufacturer is still an apostate. Save it for the Jesus-freak echo chamber, and let us celebrate observant athletes without having to indulge apologetics from outside the Jewish community.
What a panic. "Let us celebrate observant athletes????" Because choosing to sit out on Yom Kippur defines a person as observant? How about Rosh Hashana, Sukkot, Simchat Torah, Shabbat? How about eating kosher food occasionally rather than the chazer-treif and basar bechaclav that these players usually eat? Do the "observant" athletes who "sit it out" on Yom Kippur go to shul? Daven? ANYTHING???
Shawn played on Yom Kippur
Ryan Braun is not Jewish. Although his father is an Israeli Jew, his mother is Catholic. The Mets actually have three Jewish players. In addition to Green, there is Scott Schoeneweis and David Newhan (who unfortunately claims to have found Jesus and considers himself a 'messianic jew')