What Is The Torah's Opinion On Following Sports?

1:39Twenty-two giant, overgrown males trying to kill each other over some pigskin. Or a bunch of guys trying to fight over a little ball. Whatever it is, all of these people—this is all Sparta. This is a continuation of Sparta. Now, the mentality of following sports being allowed is one of the tools of Amalek, one of the tools of the Erev Rav, that you're allowed to follow sports. Why? Because sports, unlike... Anything else sports is very addictive. You can't just watch a game when you don't know who's playing, like you're not just going to watch some random high school basketball game where everybody is just an average player or less. You have to watch the NBA. And it's not just the NBA. You have to watch the team that you like. And how are you going to like them? You have to follow them. You have to follow their players, who they're trading, who they're getting as the rookie of the year, who's the best assister, and who's the best shooter and defender and all that. And what kind of sneakers is he wearing? And what kind of this? And what's his salary cap? And he's getting paid too much. And he's getting paid too little. And he signed with Nike. But he's with Adidas. And what ends up happening?

2:49You become a fan. What's a fan? Where does "fan" come from? "Fan" comes from "fanatic." That's what a fan is: someone fanatic about sports. You know everything about these teams. So you're not just watching a 90-minute game. you're investing your life into it. Because in order to like the game, to like the teams, you have to know who's playing and why you like them. You don't just like them because he's 6'6", and jumps, you know, jumps 40 inches into the air, and he runs a 40 in a 3.9. No, you don't care about that. You care about different things. So that means you have to invest a lot of time into this. And that is a lot more than the 90 minutes of the actual game, the 60 minutes, that the basketball game or the football game or the baseball game is. It's a huge investment. You're constantly watching it. You're constantly looking at it. You're constantly arguing about it. Which means that even when you try to learn, you're thinking Rabbi Akiva, yeah, Rabbi Akiva, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, also Rabbi Akiva, Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan, Michael this, Michael that, LeBron James. You're not even sure who you're reading about. You start to think, maybe Rabbi Akiva

4:03And Rava, maybe his talmidim, maybe Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai in the cave, had a basketball hoop. You start distorting things in your head. You can't be focused when you're a fan. Now, whether playing sports is permissible is a different question. Playing sports to exercise is allowed. You are allowed to play a little bit of basketball, as long as it's not on Shabbat, because for anyone who is an adult, the ball is considered muktzeh. And it's also something that you do during Yemei Chol, during the weekdays, not an action that you would do on Shabbat. But if it's during the week, you want to exercise via playing basketball, via exercising, running or something like that, whatever you want to do, that's allowed. That's allowed to exercise. But to become a fanatic, to become one of these people that watches the games on a regular basis, absolutely forbidden. Not only as a bitul Torah, but also as could be even considered Avodah Zarah to some extent. Why Avodah Zarah? When you become a fan, and I know quite a few of them... via playing basketball, via exercising, running or something like that, whatever you want to do, that's allowed. That's allowed to exercise. But to become a fanatic, to become one of these people that watches the games on a regular basis, is absolutely forbidden. Not only as bitul Torah, but also as it could even be considered avodah zarah to some extent. Why avodah zarah? When you become a fan, and I know quite a few of them,

5:06You simply start obsessing over these people. Obsessing over this sport. Fighting over it. Crying over it. Your team lost. I can't believe it. Why is Hashem doing this to me? Why is He doing this to me? What? You're 25 years old, you idiot. You're crying over a bunch of people that make $50 million a year because they lost? You idiot. Do you understand what they're going to do to you in Shamayim for crying over this, but not crying over the Beit HaMikdash? You didn't cry this much when your own father died, but you're crying over a basketball game, a football game, and not only that, you're blaming Hashem. Why is Hashem doing this to me? Like He has to change the world so you can continue going against Him. The demented mentality that we have sometimes really boggles my mind. It's mamash chesed Elokim that we're still alive. You see grown men crying over their football team, their basketball team, or, God forbid, if they're from Europe, soccer? Hashem yishmor v'yatzil. There have actually been murders over that game. Literally. They kill people. You think this is what HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, "Kedoshim Tihyu Ki Kadosh Ani," you're a holy nation? You think He was referring to those people?

6:36He was talking to us that are learning Torah, that are fanatic about Torah. You want to use exercise, use exercise, no problem. But to spend any time watching these sports, absolutely forbidden. In fact, the Steipler Gaon, Steipler Gaon, Rav Kanievsky's father, Stipler Gaon says, television, you watch television, news, games, all that stuff. In his days, it was much better TV than today. Even in his day, he says, watching regular news networks, regular TV, Avodah Zarah Mamash. He called watching television, you're watching shows, you watch Netflix, you watch movies, regular basis, this is your life, you watch sports, Avodah Zarah Mamash. Idol worshipper. Yeah, but he goes to shul, Rabbi. Okay, so there's a lot of people that idol worshippers go to. So, a person needs to understand, in order to become the Jew that he's supposed to become, and in order for her to become the Jew that she's supposed to be, the most important thing is not to allow the Tum'ah to enter your mind. Because if you allow the Tum'ah to enter your mind and enter your heart, it doesn't matter how many Mitzvot you do, there's always going to be filth on them.

7:50you are not going to be able to cleanse your neshama. Every day, investing time in Torah learning and prayer is crucial. How exactly do you expect to understand anything when you ascend to Shamayim? Are you going to tell Hashem the annual salary cap of the Knicks for the last 20 years because you memorized it by heart? Your engagement with mitzvot and Torah learning should be the focus of your life. Every day, for an hour, two hours, three hours—how are you expecting to arrive to Hashem? How, how, how exactly do you expect to learn, to understand anything? When you go up to Shamayim, are you going to tell Hashem the, uh, the annual salary cap of the Knicks for the last 20 years in a row because you remember it by heart? Who was the best trade over the last 20 years in baseball? What are you going to tell them? In Shamayim, you go up there, you have to say 40 days and 40 nights of Shiur Torah. And some Chachamim say it's not 40 days. Wrong. It's 180 days. 180 days of Torah. No jokes. No jokes, no breaks, no bathroom, no food. 180 days straight of Torah.

9:07How are you going to have time to learn that much, to say that much, if you're spending your time watching sports? How? How? It's never going to happen. And you'll also notice that most successful people in the world do not waste their time on this stuff. There are a few exceptions here and there, but generally speaking, that's only after they become really, really successful and have nothing to do with their life, like this Mark Cuban, who decided he likes basketball and bought a basketball team, so he goes to every game because he has nothing else to do with his life. But generally speaking, it's very rare. Successful people in life do not become fans of sports. They'll watch it randomly. They'll go once a year to some Super Bowl game or whatever it is, just for the show and to have something to do. But an everyday fan? No chance in the world. Why? They're too busy being successful. The people that are successful know that you cannot waste your life watching sports and watching TV, and they just want to be successful in this world.

10:18It's even more so if you want to be successful in the next world as a Jew. Consider how great your responsibility is to refrain from watching all of this nonsense and wasting your life. Next question.

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