י״ד אב ה׳תשפ״ה | August 8, 2025
A Prize Befitting a Chabad Program
When a Chabad moisad launched a mishnayos baal peh campaign in 5733, they included a soccer ball as a prize. The Rebbe sharply critiqued the choice of reward for a Lubavitch initiative and instructed that the remaining flyers be destroyed.
When a Chabad moisad launched a mishnayos baal peh campaign in 5733, they included a soccer ball as a prize. The Rebbe sharply critiqued the choice of reward for a Lubavitch initiative and instructed that the remaining flyers be destroyed.
In the summer of 5733, Tzeirei Chabad of Eretz Yisroel launched a campaign to encourage children to study mishnayos baal peh, and publicized the program with attractive advertisements, highlighting the reward system.
When the flyers reached the Rebbe, the Rebbe expressed disappointment with the fact that they had chosen a soccer ball as a prize for the learning.
“What has compelled them to include this prize?” the Rebbe wrote. “Are there no other appropriate rewards in the entire land?”
But the strongest critique was for the decision-making process. “Was there no one involved in the planning who had the thought that perhaps a program involving Chabad and the Alter Rebbe may give candies as a prize, but not soccer balls?!”
Following this sharp response, Rabbi Chodakov, the Rebbe’s secretary, clarified the Rebbe’s stance in a phone call with his liaison, Reb Efrayim Wolf.
“The Rebbe doesn’t approve of such a prize, and the remaining flyers should be burned. Find a way not to give this prize out, and for the future, know the Rebbe’s approach.”
(Askonus Tziburis p. 135)
From The Weekly Farbrengen by Merkaz Anash
COMMENTS
Can someone explain?
It may have specifically to do with Eretz Yisroel, where soccer (and sports in general) are regarded as more of a secular concept, much more than in America. Not saying for sure that was the case, just an idea.
It could be also that in Eretz Yisroel especially in those years playing soccer was considered too much association and identifying with machaleley shabbos too when many games were played mostly on Shabbos as well.