KOSHER DELIGHT - YOUR JEWISH ONLINE MAGAZINE!
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ANTARCTICA |
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RELIGIOUS PRIDE By Rabbi Shea Hecht,
October 29, 2007
י"ז חשוון תשס"ח
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It's no secret that I am Jewish; I sport my religion with great pride.
When I read about other people who take public pride in their religion it
gives me great joy. Here are two stories which I trust will be as
inspiring to you as they were to me.
First there's the article titled "Pilot On Mission To South Pole Takes
Religious Articles With Him."
Though there are only 2,000 other human beings
living in minus-20-degree temperatures of the South Pole a small flame of
Judaism will flicker in Antarctica over the next six months.
David Wakil, a
39-year-old Australian pilot from Sydney, will leave for the South Pole
this week, leaving behind all he holds dear - but not his religion.
Mr. Wakil will take all his religious articles
along with him and use them with great pride. He will carry a
Siddur/Jewish Prayer Book, Tefillin/ phylacteries, a Mezuzah, a Menorah
and a charity box with him as he flies scientists studying global warming
around the South Pole. The
other news article - titled, "Have prayers and Packers, too!" - spoke of
Rabbi Shais Taubof the Chabad Lubavitch of Wisconsin, who led a group of
10 Orthodox Jews on a pilgrimage from Milwaukee to Green Bay, Wisconsin.
They tailgated across the street from Lambeau Stadium - where the Packers
were playing - in a grass-covered parking lot. And
they prayed and ate Kosher.
According to news reports, "... they showed that people can find or
express their faith at a house of worship or a house of sports."
When interviewed, and asked what the point of the
trip was Rabbi Taub answered, "Number one, Judaism is not relegated to the
synagogue or the study hall. When you're a Jew, you're a Jew everywhere.
If a group of Jews want to go to a Packer game, we do it like Jews."
"Number two, Jewish pride," he added. "Some Jews
should see this and say, 'You know what, there is nothing to hide.' I can
be openly and boldly Jewish and do that anywhere on earth and go where I
want to go." Very few
people who surrounded the group of religious Jews noticedthat among the
group was former Packers offensive lineman Alan Veingrad, who is now known
as Shlomo Veingrad. Veingrad still stands 6 feet 5, but now has a bushy,
gray beard and wears a Yarmulke beneath a Packers cap.
"I think it's important to be proud of being
Jewish," said Veingrad, who played for the Packers in the late 1980s and
won a Super Bowl ring with the Dallas Cowboys in the 1990s.
"It's a beautiful thing that you can express your
religion," he said. And that's what the tailgate was all about - food and
fun within the guidelines of their religion .
These people who keep their religion with pride made the news. There are
ordinary people everywhere, every day, of every religion that keep their
religion with pleasure and joy - yet they don't make the news. They are
every day heroes. Every
once in a while news stories of people like David Wakil and Rabbi Shais
Taub remind us that you can be who you are everywhere and anywhere.
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KOSHER DELIGHT - YOUR JEWISH ONLINE MAGAZINE! כושר דילייט - מגזין
החדשות והמידע מהעולם היהודי ומישראל, כולל מסעדות כשרות, בתי כנסת ועוד ועוד
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