This year, the Jewish Holidays of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simchat Torah fell on the weekends, preventing many observant Jews from watching NFL (National League Football) games on Sundays and MLB (Major League Baseball) playoff games on Saturdays and Sundays. Many students who observe these holidays were upset that they couldn’t watch these important sporting events. Let’s see how students coped with the situation.
Yoni B. ‘24 explains how “it really sucks.” As a diehard Orioles fan, he mentions how he “watched regular season games all year, for over 180 days and then [he] can’t even watch the biggest games of the year.”
Pinny E. ‘24 offers a possible solution as he would “record the game and extend the time in case it would go into overtime and watch it after the holiday ended.” He says he would “try to not find out the score during the day, and would mainly only hang out with friends who keep Yom Tov, too.” This is important for some people because the intense nature of being able to watch a game, even if a few hours earlier, and not knowing the score, is so strong they try so hard to not find out the scores during Holidays. After a nap or football game with friends and after Yom Tov ended, he would “rush downstairs to watch the game with his dad.”
Noam E. ‘24 offers a different perspective as “[he didn’t] really care if [he] found out the score, and [he] wouldn’t bother to tape games either.” In modern times where we can tape games and watch them later, many people decide to take advantage of this but some don’t, like Noam.
Personally, I tried to not find out the scores, as I enjoy the anticipation of watching “live” games, even if they’re not actually live. Often, people would tell me the scores as they didn’t know I observed Chag, which was annoying, but I tried to not get too upset. For these games, I wouldn’t bother watching the full thing, instead I’d just watch the highlights on Youtube. There were a few times where I didn’t find out the scores, and I didn’t want to sit through a three hour game, so I made sure to watch the important moments, especially towards the end of the game. I definitely want to keep observing Yom Tov regardless of when sports games fall, as observing Jewish holidays has become something very special and important to me.
Most years, the fall Holidays don’t fall out on weekends, which only causes conflict for a few baseball and football games, but in years like this when multiple weeks of games are missed, observant Jews must either suck it up and find out hours after the game happened, tape the game or ask your non-Jewish neighbor about the game. It’s an unfortunate situation, but there are many ways to get around the predicament.
