For those not familiar with it- Sports Illustrated is a magazine which - as its title suggests - deals with the sporting world. It is fairly innocuous magazine all year long save for one yearly edition – the so called ‘swimsuit edition’. One time a year Sports Illustrated turns into soft porn. This year there is an Israeli model who graces its cover wearing practically nothing and in a very sexually suggestive pose.
Yishai Fleisher writing in Arutz Sheva rails against this display of flesh by a daughter of Israel. And he is absolutely correct in doing so– up to a point. In his understandable zeal protesting this and praying that Ms. Raffieli change her ways – he goes too far. And when good intentions go too far they undermine their very intent.
Yes - Ms. Bar Refaeli in her ignorance was wrong for what she did as Mr. Fleisher says. I too hope she sees the error of her ways - and changes her life toward more authentic Jewish values. But to blame Orthodox Jewish sports fans for what she did because both sports and displays of female nudity are sourced in Greek culture is ridiculous. It’s kind of like blaming someone who drives a car for anti Semitism because Henry Ford - a renowned anti-Semite - ‘invented’ the automobile. Here is what Mr. Fleisher says:
But you are not the only one to blame for this ignominious degradation. All those Orthodox Jews who take pride in having kosher hotdogs and a Maariv Minyan in Madison Square Garden - they too are to blame. Oh, they would claim that their worship of professional sports has nothing to do with your public exhibitionism. But it does, because both come from the same root; that is, the Greek and Roman fascination with the body. Is it a coincidence that Sports Illustrated caters to both the pro sports and the soft-porn crowd? Of course not, because both pro sports and soft-porn are flip sides of the same coin.
He is wrong. It is possible to take from a culture that which is good and reject that which is bad. Not that I am such a big sports fan. I am definitely not. But I understand the attraction of sports and it has nothing to do with Greek culture. If one can enjoy leisure time in a 'Kosher' way, why should he deny himself that? If it is possible to make it a more Jewish experience as it does at Madison Square Garden where one can buy Kosher hotdogs and find a Minyan for Maariv – all the better.
Yes - as Mr. Fleisher says, we have to be a light unto the nations. That’s one of the things I stress the most around here. But being a light does not mean denying every source of pleasure just because it is not sourced in the Torah. Nor should one completely reject physical beauty as Mr. Fleisher seems to imply. It isn’t always about porn. Here is how my good friend Rabbi Shael Siegel puts it in his recent blog post. He begins with Parshas Terumah wherein items used in the building of the Mishkan are described. He then says the following:
Indeed the aesthetics involved in the design of the structure was as important as the message emanating from it. Otherwise, why the detailed description in our text of the materials, colors and fabrics involved in the construction of the Tabernacle. Over the centuries and perhaps because of the long exile the Jewish religious aesthetics lost its unique signature and adopted many of the art forms from other neighboring or host culture. During those periods and perhaps because of our experience in exile we shunned art forms that were pagan or Christian in nature, perhaps as a way of maintaining our unique culture and resisting assimilating into the neighboring culture.
Our sages and rabbis however were wise and they were able to draw a qualitative line between enjoying art for the sake of its beauty and appreciating it for its religious value.There is a Mishna in Talmud Avoda Zara that tells an interesting anecdote about Rabban Gamliel, president of the Sanhedrin who frequently bathed in the Aphrodite bathhouse in Acre. One of the pagans bathing there at the time that Rabban Gamliel was there asked him how it was that he was bathing in a place where there was a statue of Aphrodite.
Rabban Gamliel answered him that one has to make the distinction between that which is important and that which is irrelevant as well as the intent of the statue. Had the statue been placed there for religious worship it wouldn’t have been permissible to bath there, but as it is there only for aesthetics it is permissible to bath there and to enjoy the aesthetics.
Do we need to be Frummer than Rabban Gamliel? That seems to be the message of Mr. Fleisher. But as Rabban Gamliel’s response to that pagan indicates - rejecting physical beauty and sporting events is not what God requires of us. To the contrary. We are to know and enjoy that which is permitted to us. One has to know what is wheat, what is chaff, and what is poison.
