Blogs.

So, is playing baseball permitted? Only if it’s activities can permitted, such as running and kicking up dirt, getting hurt, sliding into bases, and creating noise.

The mishnah holds as R’ Shimon that moving a chair that inadvertantly creates a rut is not plowing, but is melakha she-eino mitkaven lei, and so is halakha. The tosefta states one may walk on grass on shabbat and not fear tearing it out. So, running isn’t an issue.

Creating a sound, mashmia kol, usually refers to intentional or sound with instruments, so not an issue.

Getting hurt on shabbat. This may be like shevut, an activity that is not a melakha per se, but is un shabbat like. One may not climb a tree or ride a horse on Shabbat or float on the water, according to the Yerushalmi, because it is uvdin d’hol. A good argument can be made that you shouldn’t do things that have a good chance or ruining your shabbat, such as getting hurt.

The mekhilta says, six days show you do ALL your labor, and on the seventh rest, that is, all weekday activities must be done by Shabbat. So, on one foot, frisbee should be okay, tennis should be okay, softball may be okay, hardball I would avoid.

Nitpick: carrying isn’t a melachah.

Ameyn!!

In an era of increased religiosity in America where the questions of how religion interacts with the public sphere and what privileges and exemptions we confer upon religious groups this is an important question. Do we really expand the umbrella of diversity by asking Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist religious leaders to attend a service that has all the forms of protestant christianity sans the name ‘jesus’? Are there ways to change the medium and therefore the message? Forcing America to think about the ways in which our “neutral but tagged as faith-based” activities have all the forms of protestantism may help us broaden our definitions and understandings of what it means to be religious in this country. Im sorry that if the RCA refuses to attend these events they dont use the moment to start such a dialogue.