Q&A: Sabbath
Sabbath
Question
Rabbi, hello,
What do you think about a soccer player who, in order not to desecrate the Sabbath for home games, walks to the game, and for away games sleeps in a hotel near the stadium so he can walk there as well? When looking at the Sabbath, is it just a technical matter of not violating the thirty-nine categories of labor and then “everything is fine,” or are there additional considerations such as the “spirit of the Sabbath,” and so on? Also, if a player like this asked you whether to continue playing soccer or retire, what would you tell him?
Answer
A good question.
It may be possible to avoid formal prohibitions (at least Torah-level ones), but it is hard to accept such conduct as halakhically valid. As for taking large strides, perhaps one could say that is for pleasure, but it is not reasonable to say that about professional soccer. Beyond that, there are the Torah-level shevut prohibitions as well (the overall character of the day), which, as I have written, are very hard to define, but assuming such prohibitions exist—and they probably do—it seems to me that this is definitely included in them.
In short, I would advise him to give it up.