Hebrew Voices #19 – Holy City Soccer

In this episode of Hebrew Voices, Holy City Soccer, Nehemia Gordon attends a “football match” between Hapoel Be'er Sheva and Beitar Jerusalem. Between the cheers of goals and shots on net, Gordon chats with Ari Louis, an Israeli sports blogger. Louis starts off explaining about the teams, their strategies, and soccer fans in Israel, but the conversation quickly turned spiritual.

Maybe only in Jerusalem could so much spiritual insight be mined from a soccer game. Gordon and Louis discuss: sports as an outlet for religious energy in a post-religion world—the need to congregate and believe in something bigger than ourselves; sports as a substitute for war; superstition versus true spiritual energy, and the connection between the 91st minute in soccer and the days in which we currently live.

In addition to writing about sports, Louis also hosts “The Messiah Hour”—an Israeli radio show that focuses on the fulfillment of prophecy from an orthodox perspective. After explaining how he envisions the world under the reign of the Messiah, with tongue in cheek Lewis adds, “I don’t know if even the Messiah can help Israel in sports.”

In closing, Gordon draws additional parallels between soccer strategies and the strategies of the Enemy and offers an Israeli soccer chant as a deep and powerful prayer to our Father in heaven.

I look forward to reading your comments!