Hebrew Voices #19 – Holy City Soccer

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Benjamin Netanyahu: Le ma’an Zion lo ekhesheh, u’l’ma’an Yerushalayim lo eshkot. (For Zion’s sake I will not be silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest. Isaiah 62:1)

Nehemia: Shalom, this is Nehemia Gordon, and I am here with a very special episode of Hebrew Voices. This is a sports episode, and I’m releasing it to coincide with the Super Bowl. That’s the championship game in American football. I’m not much of a sports fan, but I have an emotional connection through my late friend, Reggie White, who passed away on December 24th, 2004. I’ve dedicated this episode to my friend, Reggie, and his memory.

For those who don’t know, he was an American football legend who decided to learn Hebrew after retiring from sports. My connection to him was as his Hebrew teacher, and we spent many long hours together over the last nine months of his life. I’m gonna post a video on the website, nehemiaswall.com, which was made by ESPN, about Reggie’s desire to learn the Hebrew language.

Anyway, I decided to do something very different for this episode of Hebrew Voices. I’ve lived in Jerusalem since 1993 and have never been to a soccer game. Actually, I’ve never been in any kind of sports game in Israel. And in Israel in general and Jerusalem, in particular, soccer is an important part of the culture. In Israel it’s called “kaduregel,” literally, football. What Americans call soccer, pretty much everyone else in the world calls football – not to be confused with American football, the game that Reggie White played. So, after over 20 years in Israel, I decided to go to an Israeli soccer game and find out what it was all about. I’ll admit, I don’t know the first thing about sports, so I invited an Israeli sports blogger named Ari Louis to join me at the match and help me understand what was going on. I ended up having some amazing conversations with Ari on everything from soccer strategy to how Orthodox Jews view the coming of the Messiah. I also gained some profound spiritual insights from the game that I’ll share at the end. You heard that right, spiritual insights from a soccer game.

One of the things that inspired me to look at Israeli soccer was an old episode of what I consider to be the best television police drama of all time. And no, guys, I’m not talking about “The Wire.” It was a British drama back in the 1990s called “The Cracker,” starring Robbie Coltrane as a psychologist who extracted confessions for the police. One episode in particular contains the best acting I’ve ever seen, ever. If this had been a movie, I have no doubt it would have won a series of Academy Awards. It was an episode called “To Be a Somebody,” starring a young Robert Carlyle, who I have no doubt would have won an Emmy if this had been on American television. Incidentally, the episode also starred Christopher Eccleston, who would go on to play Doctor Who. His performance was Academy Award-worthy, as well. I don’t think I’m exaggerating in saying it is the best acting I’ve ever seen in my life.

Now, in this episode of The Cracker, the main character, Robert Carlyle, he plays a hardcore working-class English soccer fan, whose life was changed when 96 football fans were crushed to death during a match at a place called Hillsborough. During his police interrogation, this football fan gives an amazing speech that explains what soccer, or “football,” as he calls it, is all about for the hardcore fans. Let’s listen to this clip, the speech that Robert Carlyle gave, and here it is.

Robert Carlyle: It’s when I failed. Nothing going right. Non-stop pressure, yeah, but nothing going right. A minute to go, and the ball’s pumped into the middle. And Anderson goes up, and boom. It’s there. Another victory. Another last-minute victory, and that’s not down to 11 greedy footballers. That’s down to 40,000 people praying, willing it to happen, believing it could happen. You see, people need to believe. People need to congregate, but there’s nothing left to believe in, nothing left to congregate for, only football.

Nehemia: Robert Carlyle is describing football as a sort of religious faith in a post-religion world. I never forgot this speech, and over the years whenever I heard about Beitar Jerusalem fans, I thought about what Robert Carlyle said. For many secular Israelis, football’s an outlet for their religious energy, for their need to believe in something greater than themselves. For the really hardcore fans, this isn’t even the team or the game. It’s the collective power and energy of the fan. As Carlyle put it in the episode of The Cracker, it’s not down to 11 greedy footballers. It’s the 40,000 fans praying for victory and believing it could happen. It’s about the power of faith. I saw this at the Israeli game when the Beitar Jerusalem fans sang one of their standard songs about victory coming from our Father in Heaven. Let me play you that clip from the soccer game, and then translate exactly what they were singing.

Crowd: “Anakhnu ma’aminim bney ma’aminim, ve’en lanu al mi lehisha’en, ela al Avinu, Avinu Shebashamayim.”

Nehemia: The sound of a Hasidic chant, “Oy oy oy oy oy.” It’s almost a dirge you might hear Jews with sidelocks and fur hats singing at the Sabbath table on a Friday night. But these are mostly secular Israelis who were singing, and what they’re singing is, “Anu ma’aminim bney ma’aminim,” “We are believers, sons of believers,” “ve’en lanu al mi lehisha’en ela al Avinu Shebashamayim,” “and we have no one to rely upon, except our Father in Heaven.” I should point out, when Jews say they are “believers,” it doesn’t mean what it means in Christianity. For most Jews, when you say you are a believer, it means, actually, that you’re not that religious. In other words, you believe in God and Scripture, but don’t necessarily live your life in accordance with God’s commandments in the Torah. That’s what it means when a Jew says he’s a believer.

And in this song, they’re proclaiming themselves “believers, sons of believers,” meaning they love God, and know victory in the football match can only come from Him. The game where this episode was recorded was dedicated to a fallen Israeli soldier named Ziv Mizrachi, who was a big Beitar Jerusalem fan. They had this whole ceremony, his family was there, I actually met his family. This young man, Ziv Mizrachi, was knifed to death by an Arab terrorist at a gas station on the road to Jerusalem. It just so happens that his uncle was also murdered by an Arab terrorist 12 years earlier, in the cafe Hillel bombing. That’s the one that took place maybe 900 feet, 300 meters from my front door on Emek Refaim Street. And I mentioned this bombing in my book, “Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence.”

I was sitting in my apartment when the bomb went off, and I felt the shock wave of the blast like a thump on my chest. Alon Mizrachi, the uncle, he was 22 years old at the time, guarding this cafe, Cafe Hillel. And he tried to stop this terrorist from bringing his lethal bomb into the cafe, and he was killed in the blast. He died a hero. Casualties would have been much higher if he hadn’t tried to stop this terrorist. And the soccer game where this episode was recorded, what you’re about to hear, it was dedicated to his nephew who also died, trying to stop a terror attack. It’s tragic for anyone to die. But when an uncle and his nephew are both murdered in two terrorist attacks 12 years apart, it’s particularly tragic.

Israeli newspapers reported that when Ziv’s mother heard about the attack at the gas station, she wrote her son a text message and the message said, “I’m nervous, call me.” Like his uncle 12 years earlier, Ziv never called. Please pray for his family.

Well, enough of my introduction. At the end of this episode, I’m going to share some of the profound spiritual realizations that came to me as I watched the football match at Teddy Stadium between Beitar Jerusalem and Hapo’el Be’er Sheva. Here’s the game, enjoy.

[Background Football Noise]

Nehemia: There’s something tribal about it.

Ari: I know, yeah, it’s pretty cool. Great point. The game has started and both fan bases are really loud right now, banging their drums. Yeah, there’s something tribal about it, that’s very well said. It feels like more than a sporting game. It feels almost like a political conference.

Nehemia: Yeah. Look, I think other people have said this, I’m not the first one to say it, but what they’ve done is they’ve channeled this human desire to go to war and fight, into sports. That’s kind of a good thing, I think.

Ari: It is. In one of my papers in college was, I argued sports was a religion because a lot of wars are religious wars. So, sports have basically taken the war concept, put it on the field or in the boxing ring, or whatever. I agree with you. I think it’s healthier for humanity.

Nehemia: Yeah, and I think about how the Europeans had these hundreds of cities that were fighting each other for thousands of years, especially in central Europe, like these little city states. And especially in Europe, you see soccer, they’re really hardcore. Can you describe what’s happening? Give us a blow by blow.

Ari: Well, you know, soccer is a much harder game to play. There’s an episode of the Simpsons where this announcer is like, “He kicks back, passes back, pass forward, pass back, center, side, center, side, center, side.”

Nehemia: Are they really just chasing after a ball?

Ari: That’s pretty much it.

Nehemia: You heard it here from Ari Louis, he’s on Israel Sports radio, they’re just chasing after a ball.

Ari: That’s pretty much what it is. I’m sure there’s more nuances, but it’s not like broadcasting a baseball game or a football game where there’s a bunch of little intricacies to it. This is simpler. But I think if we get 2-1, that would be pretty high scoring. Actually, something is going fast here.

Nehemia: I think something’s happening, what’s happening?

Ari: They’re gonna shoot and miss, just outside to the right. So, a shot on goal, that’s key. Obviously, the shots on goal are not just the attempts. You’re more likely to score. It makes the goalie work more, get more tired, more defense. The number one stat next to goals scored is shots on net.

Nehemia: What is shot on net?

Ari: Well, based on that play, Beitar basically kicked the ball in the Be’er Sheva zone. And they kicked the ball, they tried to score, shot at the net and just missed wide to the right. That should count as a shot on net, even though it did not touch the goalie’s hand.

Nehemia: So, they try to get the ball really close to the net by kicking it and then they take a shot from really close?

Ari: I mean, he was trying to score a goal, but his kick was off to the right because he just wasn’t in a good position. But what I’m trying to say is, even though he was not in a good position, it was good he made the attempt anyway, because the more attempts he makes, the more he works the goalie and he gets tired. And that’s going to set up a legitimate scoring chance down the road.

Nehemia: Gotcha. All right.

Ari: I’ll say, even though it’s early, if I had to say right now who’s gonna win just based on the movement of the game, it’s gonna be Beitar.

Nehemia: Amen. Beitar, that’s a Jerusalem team.

Ari: Yes, Beitar Jerusalem, they’re more aggressive right now. Be’er Sheva barely touched the ball so far. Beitar has the ball again. They’re going back in Be’er Sheva’s zone again. Here we go. They’re on the left side right now, and number 77 has it. And the ball is just about to go out of bounds, and it went out of bounds. No, he saved it. He saved it, sorry. We’re at the far end of the field, people, sorry about that. They’re gonna try now. He shot at goal. It just missed. That was a header.

Nehemia: That was close.

Ari: That’s the second shot at goal already. I’m telling you, they’re racking this up. Beitar is very aggressive right now. Ball back to Be’er Sheva now.

Nehemia: Wow, this is intense, as they’re getting closer and closer, the fans chanting…

Ari: Be’er Sheva, they finally had a decent chance. Now, see there, they tripped up. Beitar’s player got a whistle for it, but they’re gonna just let play continue. That’s Be’er Sheva’s first chance offensively into Beitar’s zone. First serious chance, but they didn’t get too far, so now Beitar is back with the ball.

Well, what’s crazy is we’re sitting in Jerusalem right now. 100 miles north of us in Syria people are hating each other, and doing God knows what. You know, Egypt’s got some problems and Lebanon, all that kind of stuff. We’re in a little bubble right now being in Yerushalayim, so I’m pretty happy about that. And another thing, the security that we saw getting in here, that was legitimate. Like the guy actually patted me down. He checked my hat. I’m wearing like a cover hat and he checked my bags legitimately.

Nehemia: He wanted to see if you were hiding something under your hat?

Ari: Yeah, so it was legit security. There’s a lot of parts of Israel that pretty lax, like a supermarket…

Nehemia: Wait a minute, our American listeners are like, “What are you talking about? We walk into Walmart and no one’s looking.” And there’s security in the supermarkets in Israel, but you’re saying it relatively lax.

Ari: Yeah, that’s the thing. The guy’s gotta be there, he’s got to check if anyone looks suspicious. But I was at the supermarket yesterday and the guy said like, “Yesh neshek?” “Do you have a gun, or weapon?” I was like, “No.” He’s like, “Okay, go in.” That was about it. Here’s a chance for Beitar on the left side. Dancing, shooting…Not shot yet, pass out. See, Beitar blew this opportunity. Yeah, that’s another shot on goal, but they blew it. They had a good angle on the left side close to the net. Instead of taking the shot, it was passed on all the way to the other side and that was not enough. Again, now it’s three shots on net for Beitar, zero for Be’er Sheva. Keep it in mind. Keep in mind, like I said.

Nehemia: So, what they’re doing is they’re wearing down the goalie, is what you’re telling me?

Ari: Yeah, they’re wearing down the goalie and they’re wearing down the Be’er Sheva defense. Logistically, to run backwards takes a lot more out of your body than running forwards. I think part of the game plan is to just be really aggressive and wear them down. I mean, long way to go. We’re only in the 12th minute, this is a long way to go. Like I said, if the flow doesn’t change, Beitar, they’re gonna win.

Nehemia: So, because Beitar has the ball, Be’er Sheva is forced to run backwards?

Ari: Yeah, that’s part of it, too. Beitar is consistently… To use a basketball term, they’re setting up their fast breaks. They’re running down and putting the ball in Be’er Sheva’s zone and setting up these shots on net. And when you have to wait, not just running backwards, but the other team has the ball, you have to spend a lot of energy trying to figure out what the offense is going to do.

Nehemia: Now, what just happened with the fans, is the Be’er Sheva fans were beating on their drums and the Jerusalem fans responded with their drums. And they’re actually segregated, meaning the Be’er Sheva fans are sitting in a different section from the Jerusalem fans. Does that happen in football in America?

Ari: It happens in college football. With the universities, they have their own section, visitors have their own section. They have those traditions. This is a bit of a college atmosphere. I’ve broadcasted basketball games. That’s what it kind of felt like, a college atmosphere. College fans are usually the best fans in American sports.

Nehemia: Roll Tide.

Ari: That’s right, Roll Tide.

Nehemia: When I was at the last game, I found myself actually rooting for Beitar Jerusalem and getting excited when they finally got their one goal. Even though, I’ll be honest with you, I’m not really into sports. And me, rooting for Beitar Jerusalem is like, you know, wanting the grass to grow more on one side of the road than the other side of the road. But I love the city of Jerusalem and maybe it’s something infectious about the atmosphere of everybody shouting, and excited, and rooting for the team. I just got infected by it, and got excited when they got their one goal, but they lost.

Ari: Well, the funny thing is, again, I talked about how in college I wrote a paper about how sports is a religion and Jerusalem is a religious city. But if you think about it, you have all these fans, they’re all doing something together. That’s really, really unique. Because even when you have the Jewish holidays, when they pray, it’s usually in their own, you know, minyans or groups, maybe a few hundred people at most. This is a few thousand people, they’re all together and they’re from all walks of life. You know, we spoke to that young woman at the beginning of the game. She had a nose ring.

Nehemia: She had a septum ring, like an ox.

Ari: Yeah. So, you have people that have a secular look to them. You have a lot of religious people. You have your Moroccans, Sephardi, you have some Ashkenazi, I mean, you have people of all backgrounds. That’s one reason why I really like sports. It figures out a way to unify people, even though it’s competitive and you have different sides.

But if you think about it, if these people here were not at this game, they wouldn’t know each other. They wouldn’t meet each other in a different aspect of life. They wouldn’t meet each other at a bar or some other group, they’d never see each other. Sports does that a lot. You have people that you only meet at a sporting game. I believe in God and I have a religion, but out there, there’s a lot of people that their religion is soccer or other sports, no question about it. You see that in Europe a lot. No doubt. Europe, actually, has very little “traditional religion.” It’s probably the least religious place in the world. And you see a lot of stuff, you see less people that go to church or some place of worship, but the soccer or football stadiums are full.

Nehemia: So, they’ve turned, essentially, sports into their religion. And in that clip we listened to, he’s talking about, “It’s not down to the 11 greedy footballers. It’s the people praying and wanting it.” And there is a religious aspect to it, even in this secular game. It’s not traditional religion, but in a sense it’s not these guys out in the field. It’s all of us, the collective energy of the fans, who are praying and wanting something to happen.

Ari: There are people that believe in really superstitious, weird stuff. They believe that if they sit in a certain seat it will help the team. Actually, there was a really funny movie called “Celtic Pride.” Daniel Stern’s the main character, a couple of comedians. And for some reason, the Utah Jazz are in the NBA finals against the Celtics. And one of the players, Damon Wayans, he’s the top basketball player. And the Celtics want to win, so the fans kidnap him, that’s the main plot.

But one of the things they talk about early in the movie, they’re sitting in a certain seat and the Celtics aren’t doing well, so they switch seats, and there are actually people that believe that. They believe that by setting a certain couch cushion a certain way, drink the beer a certain way. And the fans actually believe they have an effect on the game. To a certain point they do. I don’t know about supernatural type of thing, but energy is energy. Naturally, for most people, if you walk into a stadium and 10,000 people like you, it lifts your spirits more than if they hate you. I mean, there are exceptions. Some people like to be hated, but most people want to be liked. So, in that respect, they do have an effect on the game, yeah.

Nehemia: This is interesting, what we’re talking here. We’re in a soccer game in Jerusalem, and we’re talking about some really profound concepts, the difference between religion, and superstition, and genuine spiritual energy, if you believe in such a thing, versus the energy of a crowd. These are some really profound and deep issues that I don’t know that we’re gonna answer here at the soccer game. Oh, we just caught the ball.

Ari: Yes, shot on goal for Be’er Sheva. That’s their second one, a header. Not bad. I mean, it wasn’t really gonna do much. It was pretty slow up in the air. But again, you gotta make the Beitar goalie work as well. We’re in about the 30th minute now. Yes, it is 0-0, this still is soccer. And it’s not gonna be much more than 0-0, but maybe it’ll be 1-0, we’ll see what happens. We have profound thoughts here because it’s the two of us chatting, we’re profound people. That’s why.

Nehemia: Well, it’s the city and it’s the energy of the city. I remember I was sitting in a cafe once. It was Tal Bagels on Emek Refaim. And there was a woman at the other table who was doing some kind of writing, or something. And she asked everyone else around for the meaning of some word in a medieval Hebrew text. And everyone starts to have this conversation about what this word means from 1,000 years ago in some medieval Hebrew text. Only in Jerusalem. It’s amazing. I love this city.

Ari: Oh, yeah. There’s all kinds of stuff. I was at work, it was like a month ago. I had to go out to daven, you know, put on my Tefillin. And there was a secular guy from the other office. He came out, he’s like, “Do you need a Talit?” And I was like, “Oh, no thanks, I’m cool,” because Ashkenazi custom is not to wear the Talit until after you’re married, but it was pretty nice. Only in Israel would a guy come out and ask if he could assist in my prayer. So, that was pretty cool.

Nehemia: And the secular guy has got the Talit, the prayer shawl.

Ari: Yeah, he’s got it somewhere, yeah. He’s got it at work, stashed away in case he needed it. There is one unique thing about soccer than other sports, it’s very unique, is that they have this thing called “extra time.” So basically, they never stop the clock. However, when the ball goes out of bounds, or they have some break in play, or there’s been a couple of them, the referee kind of keeps track of that. And then at the end, they keep playing. So, they’ll actually play after the 90th minute, but nobody knows how many minutes are left. So, there’s a lot of suspense there. Especially when the game is tied, or even if the game is within one goal. So, that’s very unique. You do not see that in any other sport. Everyone knows when the game ends, they know when it’s three zeros, and they count down, by the way. Basketball, you know, there’s 12 minutes in the quarter, they go down to zero. In soccer, it goes up to the 90th minute and beyond.

Nehemia: And we have this expression in Hebrew, maybe in English too, called, “It was the 91st minute.” What does that mean?

Ari: Oh, like it’s your last chance. It’s the final time, whatever you’re going to do. If you’re gonna do something, do it now, because it’s almost over.

Nehemia: Gotcha. And it’s really intense, because you don’t know how many seconds you have left.

Ari: Right, that’s it, exactly. From a religious perspective, let’s say 91st minute. Let’s say, you wanna say, “The world’s gonna end and we’re in the 91st minute.” We don’t know when it’s gonna end, so repent or do whatever you gotta do, because you’re almost out of time. That would be like the expression to use in a religious context.

Nehemia: Do you believe we’re in the 91st minute of the world before the Messiah comes?

Ari: Probably. You know, I host a show called “The Messiah Hour” again on Israel Sports and News Radio. We’re talking about different news events, if they fulfill prophecy or they don’t.

Nehemia: Wait, stop, stop. You host a show called “The Messiah Hour?”

Ari: Yes.

Nehemia: Can you please tell my audience about that? I didn’t know this.

Ari: Yeah. Well, Israel Sports and News Radio, we have shows that deal with sports, but also news, politics, and religion. And I had a show on Arutz Sheva for a while. The premise is basically, news events, do they fulfil Tanakh prophecies or not? For example, here’s something kind of interesting. It talks about the Jews will return to Israel on the wings of an eagle. So, a hundred years ago, they might be like, “What are they talking about, it doesn’t make any sense.” But nowadays, you can look and say, “Oh, it probably means an airplane, you know, the way the airplane is made.” Or some people say that the bald eagle is the emblem of the United States, and that the United States was very prominent in getting the Jews back to Israel through some ways. Whatever, I mean, people have their own interpretations.

But one of the things it talks about, I believe the Vilna Gaon, a big Rabbi in the late 1800s or so (1700’s actually), he says that when Russia takes over a certain part in Turkey, keep your Shabbat clothes on because the Mashiach’s about to come. And that might happen. You know, Putin is very mad that Turkey shot down their plane. Also, there was something similar last year. One of the things which says about nevu’a and prophecy, if you go to King Solomon, he said, “Nothing new under the sun.” Things that happen, they’ve always happened, according to that concept. So, there could be things going on in the news that fulfilled prophecy, but it might not be messianic prophecy, it’s hard to say. But I love the discussion and that’s why we do the show.

Nehemia: This is unbelievable. I’m sitting here at a Beitar game with the Israel Sports guy, and he’s telling me about a show called “The Messiah Hour” in which he talks about fulfillment of Biblical prophecies going on in the news, and this is a Sports Israel guy. I love Jerusalem. I love Israel.

Ari: Yeah, Jerusalem’s the best. Well, we’ve had a lot of cool guests, Dr. Shore, as I mentioned. We talked about actually, there’s different formulas about the Messiah coming.

Nehemia: And just to be clear, when you say “Messiah coming,” you guys are Orthodox Jews. So, when you say “Mashiach,” you don’t know who’s it gonna be. You’re not sure when he’s gonna come, exactly.

Ari: Right.

Nehemia: What are you expecting in the fulfillment of the Messiah? What are your expectations?

Ari: Well, there’s the negative expectations, the positive expectations. The negative one is that there’s a huge, massive war, which kind of looks like we’re heading to, I hate to say it, I don’t want to bring anyone down. Consistently, the belief is that all negative prophecies can be avoided. You know, people repent, they do the right thing, etc. It’s consistently in Tanakh. Like if you look at the story of Purim, God says, “I’m destroying the Jews. They’re done.” And then the Jews fasted, they repented, and it didn’t happen. And there’s a lot of stories like that.

Nehemia: It’s gotta be in the Midrash, because I don’t remember that in the Book of Esther, that God said He’s destroying the Jews.

Ari: Well, I guess it’s learned out. Well, God Himself is not mentioned in the Book of Esther at all.

Nehemia: Your point is that negative prophecies can be avoided. That’s actually a principle that Jeremiah talks about in chapter 28, I believe it is, where he says if a Prophet prophesizes something negative and it doesn’t happen, it could be they repented. But if he prophesied something positive and it doesn’t happen, he’s truly a false Prophet.

Ari: That’s right, exactly. So, that’s a way to test a Prophet. Let’s say some Prophet comes like, “I’m a prophet.” “Oh, yeah? Well, tell us something that’s gonna happen tomorrow.” That’s the deal. If they say something positive doesn’t happen, he’s false. And if he says something negative, you could say, “Well, maybe they repented.”

Nehemia: What are the positive things that are in your expectations for a Messiah?

Ari: Well, if everybody…I don’t know if everybody’s gonna get along…

Nehemia: What does it look like when the Mashiach comes?

Ari: After all the wars are done, if they happen or whatever, I mean, I would hope that basically the idea that everyone believes in one God, and I think that would mean that everyone knows we’re all related. For example, we’re here in Jerusalem. It’s a nice place, we feel comfortable. But there are hundreds of millions of people that are starving all over the world, starving to death. You know, there’s a funny comedian…

Nehemia: I love it. They’re starving to death, and the next sentence is, “There’s a funny comedian.” I love Jews.

Ari: Okay, well, because Louis C.K. talks about it. He says, “You ever notice you’re around someone and they say, ‘Oh, I’m starving. I haven’t eaten since eight.’ No, you’re not starving. Starving is when you’re starving to death, like in Africa.” India is also dirt poor. I mean, there are billions of people that live in horrendous poverty, not like, “Oh, I can’t pay my rent this month.”

Nehemia: That’s pretty bad, too.

Ari: It’s not good.

Nehemia: Been there, done that.

Ari: Yeah, also been there done that. It’s not good, but to have when your stomach shrinks and you’re disheveled… The thing is, people say, “Why does God let bad things happen?” I would counter, God gives us all the tools for everyone to be healthy and do well, and we’re not sharing or using it. You know, you can’t get mad at God when He provides food in the land and the water. Everyone is stealing from one another, or not giving.

Nehemia: Let’s go back to the Mashiach. So, we’re here at the soccer game, watching Beitar. Nothing’s really happening, they’re chasing after a ball. I’m much more interested in what this Orthodox Jew has to say about the Messiah, the Mashiach coming. We’re sitting here, minding our business, watching the game and the Mashiach comes right now. What happens? What does it look like?

Ari: Well, you know, I would say like this. One of the things is, there has to be an announcement. If you look at technology, look how much technology has actually exploded just in the last 10 years. Ten years ago, there’s no Facebook, Wikipedia, YouTube. Everyone could see everything, so if the Mashiach walks in, everyone’s gonna put in their smartphone, “Mashiach is here,” and the whole world will know within five minutes, I guess, maybe less. Then he’s gonna come. Basically, the idea is…

Nehemia: And how will they know he’s here? In other words, if I were to send something that went viral that says the Messiah is here, maybe it’s true, maybe it’s not. How will we know?

Ari: He’s gotta prove it to us. He’s gonna be the leader. He’s supposed to do a bunch of things. He’s got to rebuild the Temple. He’s got to get everyone to believe in one God. He’s got to unify everybody. He’ll basically be like a king. He’ll be in charge.

Nehemia: There will be an actual flesh and blood King, according to your belief.

Ari: Yeah, there will be a flesh and blood king.

Nehemia: So, will Netanyahu be out of a job?

Ari: Yeah, I think so, which wouldn’t be so bad. I’m not the happiest with him. I know he might have the toughest job on the planet, but housing has gone up in pricing 50% since he’s been in office, but the wages have not gone up 50%, believe me. He needs to do something about that. He’s an MIT grad and his big thing is supposed to be economics, so he needs to fix it. But anyway, I believe that Mashiach will be a king, but you have to keep in mind that a Jewish king is much different than kings in other places. Kings in other places are your dictators. They’re consistently feared, people try to kill them, they are not always liked. Most of the time, the good Jewish kings are liked by most of the people.

Nehemia: Yeah, and I think today there’s different kinds of kings. Meaning you’ve got the King of Belgium. I don’t know who that is, but there’s apparently a King of Belgium or something like that, who doesn’t really even have any power. But then you have the King of Saudi Arabia, who you’re actually not allowed to talk about in the public media. It’s against the law, because they don’t want you to say good or bad about him.

Ari: Yeah, well, there are some pretty scary places. It used to be that you could not look a king in the face, it was the death penalty. There have been some pretty scary times. But Israel did its best in history, in my opinion when under King David’s rule and King Solomon’s rule, King David was king for 40 years, King Solomon also 40. That was 80 years of good times. When was the last time you saw that the Jewish people had it good for 80 years in a row? So, that was the time we had it pretty well. Israel was a world power, the number one power. People respected us, looked up to us. That’s one of the things I envision when the Messiah comes. Israel does very well technology-wise. There are some things they do very well, but there are things they don’t do so well. And when the Messiah comes, I think Israel will be number one in everything. They’ll be number one in the economy, number one in computer stuff, philosophy people will come to us…

Nehemia: Will we be number one in sports?

Ari: I don’t know.

Nehemia: Will Israel win the World Cup? That’s the main soccer thing, the World Cup. Will they win the World Cup?

Ari: Well, they gotta qualify first. They’ve never qualified.

Nehemia: Oh, no, we never even qualified.

Ari: No, they have not. That’s kind of sad. So yeah, I don’t know if even the Messiah could help Israel to be better at sports.

Nehemia: You heard it here from the Israel Sports guy. Even the Messiah won’t be able to help Israel to be better at sports.

Ari: He can’t do everything. I think he’ll come in and kind of shrug his shoulders and say, “What do you want from me?”

Nehemia: He’s like, “I can’t perform miracles.” Or can he perform miracles? Not that big of a miracle.

Ari: Yeah, not that big.

Nehemia: World peace, maybe, but not Israel winning the World Cup. Let’s see if we could try to find some people to interview over there. I’m looking for some people here to interview, if anybody speaks English. Who are you rooting for? Who do you want to win?

Zevi: Beitar Yerushalayim. I’m from England. I’m from London.

Nehemia: Oh, you’re from London, I had trouble understanding your accent. I’m doing a podcast, I’m calling it “Holy City Soccer.” How long have you been a fan of Beitar?

Zevi: Nine years.

Nehemia: Nine years. And where are you from in England?

Zevi: London

Nehemia: How long have you lived in Israel?

Zevi: Nine years.

Nehemia: Oh, you’re a fan for nine years, you’ve lived here for nine years. Who did you root for over in London?

Zevi: Westham.

Nehemia: Westham. Is that a real team?

Zevi: Oy, watch it! Westham.

Nehemia: We don’t even know your name. What’s your name?

Zevi: Zevi.

Nehemia: Zevi. So Zevi, why soccer, or why football? Why not basketball.

Zevi: Football’s the game, there’s no other sport. This is the only sport there is, all the other sports are rubbish. What’s the point?

Nehemia: I need you to come and sit with us and talk to us.

Zevi: Are you not football journalists? You’re a general journalist?

Nehemia: Most of the programs I do are about history and religion. He’s a sports journalist.

Zevi: Fair enough. What made you interested in doing this?

Nehemia: What I was inspired by was the whole theme of Beitar and the fighting spirit of the Bar Kokhba war, which was based at Beitar, and how that’s been translated into modern sports. I don’t know sports.

Zevi: Can I say that the roots of the Beitar football team aren’t that connected to the actual place, Beitar.

Nehemia: Okay, what are they connected to?

Zevi: It’s more to do with Jabotinsky. He made a youth movement when he was active in Israel, just before the state. He made up a youth movement called “Beitar” and that the team is an evolution, basically, out of that youth movement.

Nehemia: So, it came out of the youth movement of Ze’ev Jabotinsky, who was a founder of revisionist Zionism. Guys, you can Google that, that’s your homework. Okay, so he had this sports youth movement. There are other… isn’t there a Hapoel Jerusalem soccer team?

Zevi: Hapoel Jerusalem is in the second division, they’re rubbish. They’re barely a football team.

Nehemia: So, this is a serious football team?

Zevi: A serious football team. There’s also Hapoel Katamon, they’re not real. This is the only real football team in Jerusalem.

Nehemia: So, if you don’t support this, you’re just not really into football?

Zevi: Um, yeah, I’d say so. I’d say so, yeah.

Nehemia: Can I ask, are you religious?

Zevi: I’m religious, yeah.

Nehemia: Do you think most of the people here are religious or secular?

Zevi: To some extent most people are religious, they believe in God, that’s one thing. The commandments of God is something else, but they all believe in God. And then we have our song about God, believing in God, because of God we will win, or whatever.

Nehemia: Can you sing that for us in Hebrew?

Zevi: I’m not singing it.

Nehemia: Come on, chant it. So, what are the words, though? Can you just tell us the words in Hebrew?

Zevi: It’s a Jewish song which we also sing here, it’s not exactly to do with football. Should I translate it?

Nehemia: No, recite it in Hebrew.

Zevi: Recite it in Hebrew? Anakhnu ma’aminim bney ma’aminim.

Nehemia: We are believers, the sons of believers.

Zevi: Ve’en lanu al mi lehisha’en.

Nehemia: And we have no one to rely upon.

Zevi: Ela al Avinu Ahebashamayim.

Nehemia: But our Father in heaven.

Zevi: Exactly, that’s it.

Nehemia: This is what I struggle with, Zevi. I heard them singing that song a month ago when I came to the last game against Be’er Sheva. Coincidentally, this is only my second game ever and it’s against Be’er Sheva.

Zevi: We got beaten badly, last time.

Nehemia: We did, three to one. And they sang that song and then the next song was about people’s mothers in the parking lot. Like, help me understand, how do you do that?

Zevi: No, I don’t know that one. It’s not the usual.

Nehemia: Yeah, and they were kind of like directing it at the Be’er Sheva fans, they were sitting over there. So, the question is… I struggle with this. How do you sing a song about, “We believe and we love God,” and then you sing perverse songs?

Zevi: Like I said, I’m religious, so a lot of the songs I wouldn’t sing myself. Like I say, a lot of the guys believe in God, to a certain extent. Meaning they believe in God, they sing the songs that believe in God, and it’s like, “Big deal,” you know?

Nehemia: I don’t know.

Zevi: No, you don’t know? I mean, there are the commandments of God and there’s believing in God. And so, they believe in God, but they don’t do the commandments of God. It’s two different things.

Nehemia: So, they’ve got this religious streak, but there’s also like this – maybe it’s the wrong word – hooliganism, maybe?

Zevi: You could say so.

Nehemia: Did you go to football games in England?

Zevi: I did, I did. I went to them.

Nehemia: How does it compare to here?

Zevi: I’ve gotta say, the fans are more active in Israel.

Nehemia: Really, more than in England?

Zevi: Even though they sing. Not really singing in England. But in England, in the Premier League, it costs a lot of money nowadays. Literally, to go to a game, as I say, it costs about £50. That’s like 300 shekels. It’s a lot of money, right? That’s the cheapest ticket you can get, like for an adult ticket. Here, just now, how much did we pay today? I pay 50 shekel, that’s £8, £8 to go to a game.

Nehemia: I’m bad at math, but it’s something like $10 or $12?

Zevi: $10, $12. Same amount of fun. The whole idea is that there the fans, they pay that much money and they’re not there to sing and enjoy, like support their team. At the end they just want to watch football. They just want to watch. If you want to watch football just go home and watch on your TV screen, you know what I’m saying? You’re here, you want to support your team, you want to be into it.

Nehemia: So, the people here are here to support the team and be here for the experience?

Zevi: Also. You remember, last time, the more hooligan fans, La Familia, they sat on that side.

Nehemia: Yeah, that side. And I was there, too, with them. They kind of scared me, I’ll be honest with you.

Zevi: They’re scary people…

Nehemia: Why did they close that section down this time?

Zevi: Because they didn’t need to open it. Every section you open in a football match, you have to have a certain amount of security guards. There’s no point opening another stand if it’s not gonna be sold out on one stand. Then you’re just gonna have to pay a lot more security guards to come to the game. So, there’s no point.

Nehemia: And basically, the stadium isn’t full because maybe this isn’t that important of a game, and there’s a lot of, people are also worried…

Zevi: I’d say in English football… Do you know English football?

Nehemia: Not at all, but maybe my listeners do, so tell us.

Zevi: In England you have the Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup. This is the League Cup, this is the third most important competition for a Premier League team. It’s a big game, it’s against a big team, it’s against Be’er Sheva who is considered as the second-best team in Israel.

Nehemia: Who’s the best?

Zevi: Maccabi. Maccabi Tel Aviv. They were in the Champions League this year.

Nehemia: And so, where does Beitar Jerusalem fit into?

Zevi: Well, as a Beitar fan I have to say third.

Nehemia: But if you weren’t a Beitar fan, what would you say?

Zevi: Third, I’m not changing it.

Nehemia: Okay, he’s sticking with that.

Ari: Someone told me one time that soccer was born in England but died in Israel, playing-wise. What do you think of that?

Zevi: Well, I think it was born in England, that’s for sure. I’ll go with that one. But it didn’t die in Israel, it’s living.

Ari: You like the playing?

Zevi: I like it. I like it. It’s gutsy. As an English guy I like rough football…

Ari: But it’s 0-0 at halftime.

Zevi: It’s a league cup, it’s not a league game. It’s a league cup…

Ari: Other playing.

Zevi: Other playing, it’s not as serious. Even, actually, the Beitar management made sure that they would tell the players before this game, “Go out and do what you can,” and all that.

Ari: Beitar has had a pretty good season this year, management took it more seriously. They haven’t won since 2009, right?

Zevi: They haven’t won the league, right. The thing is that until this last weekend, they had seven games straight but they only lost one game between them. It felt really good. It felt like everything was going right. Yeah, it still feels like everything’s going right. It’s gonna be a good season. Yeah, this year we got to Europe. It’s not that amazing, we ended fourth place in the league. It’s quite amazing, actually, fourth place in the league.

Nehemia: That’s an interesting expression, “Everything’s going right.” What does that mean?

Zevi: That means the players are playing football. Sometimes you have seasons where you come to the first game of the season and you look at the players and you say, “Oh, we’re gonna have a terrible season,” and you know it on the first game of the season. In this season you go to each game and you see, “Oh, they’re playing football, at least.”

Nehemia: Who’s gonna win this game?

Zevi: Beitar, obvious. Beitar Yerushalayim.

Nehemia: You heard it here, Zevi says it’s gonna be Beitar. We’re gonna find out if he’s right. All right, thanks a lot, man.

Zevi: Cheers.

Nehemia: So, that was pretty cool. He’s not just a fan, he’s the head of the English fans.

Ari: Oh, he’s the head of them? We were talking about the Messiah right before. We were talking about the Messiah before he came here.

Nehemia: Yeah, talk to me about the Messiah.

Ari: By the way. You know, there’s different Rabbis that explain there’s actually, believe it or not, there’s one advantage of the Messiah not coming…

Nehemia: Hold on, there are Rabbis who say there’s an advantage to the Messiah not coming? What’s that?

Ari: It’s that before he comes, you have more of an opportunity to grow. Because, for example, we’re sitting here living in Israel, right? There are a couple of people out there that think we should not be here. So, to kind of fight that temptation and all that energy and to go, “No, we’re gonna be here, this is what we want to do, this is the right thing,” etc., that’s very valuable. You know, after the Messiah comes, things will be a lot clearer. So, to do the right thing, it won’t be the same. Doing the right thing when it’s hard is a lot more valuable than when it’s easy. So, that is the one advantage of the Messiah not coming, is things are harder now. Life is more complicated, things are harder to figure out, it’s confusing. Injured man on the field, by the way, medics went out there for Be’er Sheva. So, things are harder to do. So, to do the right thing is more valuable. That is the one advantage of the Messiah not coming yet.

Nehemia: I’m totally not following this. So, when the Messiah comes there won’t be injured players. So, it’s a good thing that we have injured players?

Ari: No, no, no.

Nehemia: Help me out here. Will we have cancer when the Messiah comes?

Ari: No, there won’t be sickness. I just brought up the injured player because it just happened right now.

Nehemia: Aren’t you looking forward to that? Wouldn’t you rather live in the period with no cancer versus the period of cancer?

Ari: Of course. But like I said, most things are not 100 percent. The one thing that is a plus about him not being here right now is that we have more of an opportunity to grow than when he is here, that’s the one positive. I believe God doesn’t put anything 100 percent negative. So, even in the society we live in now, there’s wars and sickness, all that kind of stuff, He still put something in that was positive. I mean, He put more than one thing. But something that’s positive now, as opposed to the Messianic era, is that to do the right thing is harder now. And therefore, it’s more valuable and it’s more praiseworthy to do the right thing now. You know, people out there that support Israel now, you’re doing something very, very good. After the Messiah comes, everyone’s gonna support Israel, it’s gonna be obvious. It won’t be as big a deal.

Nehemia: So, what you’re saying, in a sense, is that the level of your reward for keeping commandments is commensurate to the level of difficulty. And when it’s easy, then big deal, you kept the commandments, is that kind of what you’re saying?

Ari: I wouldn’t say big deal, but it’s not the same. I mean, you see that kind of time and time again. Actually, here’s an example. They say that it’s harder to keep the mitzvot rich than poor, right? So, how can that be? Because there’s a concept, keeping the mitzvot when you’re rich is more difficult than keeping it when you’re poor. Because when you’re poor, you’re more likely to turn to God and say, “Please help me.” But when you’re rich, there’s a good possibility, a good chance that people will say like this, “No, I made the money myself. God had nothing to do with it. I don’t need to talk to Him. I don’t need to listen to what He has to say.” So therefore, people that are rich and actually keep the commandments, they do it at a higher level of difficulty than people who are poor. So, there’s a bunch of things to talk about like that, that keeping the mitzvot, it’s not like you have to make things difficult, you know, life has its own difficulties. But people that do things under harder stresses, it’s more valuable.

Nehemia: And that’s actually really interesting, because you’re saying being rich is the harder stress in this case, than being poor. Because basically, if you’re rich, you’re like, “Look, I don’t need God, I’ll buy my own food.” Where if you’re starving to death, “God, please feed me.”

Ari: That’s right. Mitzvot-wise, it’s harder to do. In other things in life, it’s easier to have more money. Some things you could say are harder for different things. People ask you for more money when you’re rich, or people might try to steal money, God-forbid. Well, you know, being rich, overall, I would say, is an easier lifestyle than being poor, but not necessarily religiously. Religiously, it seems to be harder. You see it time and time again. There’s a verse directly in the Bible that talks about “A man’s gonna pray to God, God’s gonna help him and then he’s gonna forget God, or say it’s because of me.” It’s directly in the Bible.

Nehemia: That’s in the Book of Proverbs. It’s in my book, “A Prayer to Our Father.”

Ari: Yeah, it’s directly in the Bible about that. It actually happened in sports, believe it or not, a few times. 2004 Boston Red Sox, Curt Schilling, he was on my show and he gave me a great interview. He said something interesting. He is a born-again Christian, and game one against the Yankees in 2004 NLCS, he came out very arrogantly. He was like, “Nothing makes me happier than to make 55,000 New Yorkers shut up.” He had all this arrogance and he got crushed in the game.

And he talked about it afterwards. He’s like, “I came out with arrogance, we saw how that felt. I’m a born-again Christian. God’s the one who’s in control and in charge,” etc. And then, he had the famous bloody sock game in game six where he was actually bleeding on his ankle. You could see the shots of it. They did a special surgery so he could pitch, but he could barely walk. Anyways, after the Red Sox won the World Series, he kind of went back to being a little arrogant. He’s like, “This is the best Red Sox team of all time.” You heard a little less about God then. It’s almost human nature. You almost can’t fault him. Something happens to your mind after success.

Nehemia: And then when things are difficult, you turn to God. Like the old saying, “There are no atheists in the foxhole.”

Ari: That’s right. So, if you have no atheists in the foxhole and then you survive the war, then afterwards you’re like, “Well, it was chance or random.” Look at Israel’s war in 1967. Israel won that war in six days. The Six-Day War is completely miraculous. I mean, it was so clear that Israel was gonna lose. It was a foregone conclusion that Israel was gonna lose. Israel wins, and instead of saying it was God, a lot of people were like, “Well, you know, we had really good intelligence. We have a really good army,” blah, blah, blah. And the army is obviously excellent, they sacrificed themselves. But to say that wars are not divinely influenced, I have a hard time believing that if you look at the facts on the ground.

Nehemia: Yeah, one of the statistics that I had read about was that they dug 10,000 graves in Independence Park, ‘cause that’s how many casualties they were expecting.

Ari: Yeah, yeah. During the Yom Kippur War, the line was, “The last guy to leave the airport, turn the lights off.” ‘73 was probably more dire than ‘67. I mean, that was a disaster, but weird things happened that saved us. I mean, there are stories of tanks coming in from Syria and these other countries. They came in all the way up to Tel Aviv. And they thought, “There’s no way the Israelis are this stupid, this must be an ambush,” and they left. And there’s also stories where they saw angels and they got scared and went back.

Nehemia: Wait, you know the story about the angels?

Ari: I’ve heard it briefly, but not so much. You know more about it, I take it?

Nehemia: I did a teaching about the angels, it’s actually in one of my books, “Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence.” I tracked down the story. It’s an incredible story. The report is that the Syrians’ tank commander said he saw a line of white angels and a hand came from heaven and said “Stop.” And so, they abandoned their tanks.

Ari: Yeah, right. There are a lot of stories like that. You have to obviously respect… Shot, scored, Be’er Sheva scored.

Nehemia: Oh, no.

Ari: This game is tied.

Nehemia: Oh no, nothing’s going right.

Ari: I told you, Be’er Sheva had to be more aggressive. They listened to my advice. They’ve already had four shots on goal in this half, they only had two in the first half. Fourth one was lucky number four in this half, lucky six overall. This game’s 1-1, we’re in the 63rd minute. This game is gonna go to 90 minutes plus. We’ve got about 30 minutes to go, we’ll see what happens. Good stuff, got drama building in at Teddy.

Nehemia: Oh wow, this is drama. I don’t understand this, 1-1. We were ahead, we were winning and now we’re tied with Be’er Sheva. There was this funny thing, it was on the fan page on Facebook of the Beitar team. And it showed this line of camels, and it said, “We’ll have a game on Wednesday if there isn’t a sandstorm.” And I guess they were kind of making fun of Be’er Sheva, which is in the desert, surrounded with camels. It isn’t really true, but it’s funny.

Ari: You know, my website, Israel Sports News Radio, I want the fans to get involved, because the site’s for the fans. We don’t have corporate sponsorship or advertisement. It’s made for the fans to listen to and enjoy. And we report on real news, things that go on that isn’t always talked about in the mainstream about corporate interest. People should get involved. You can email me at messiahhour@gmail.com, it’s my email, one of my emails. If you guys want me to talk about certain episodes, do certain programs, I’m happy to do that. We do that all the time, it’s very fan involved. A lot of fan input goes in. I listen to the fans, and then try to adjust accordingly with my programming.

Nehemia: So, you would be willing to do a program, if somebody wrote into you and said, “I really want to know how the war in Syria is a fulfillment, or not a fulfillment, of Biblical prophecy,” you would find a guest? What would you do?

Ari: Yeah, well, we could do a couple of angles. There’s a couple of Rabbis that we have on very commonly. Then we have a couple of historians. And we have a couple of military experts, if you will, army experts type of thing. So, we try to incorporate what would be the best fit. I love doing that.

Nehemia: Awesome. What’s the email they can write into, again?

Ari: Messiahhour@gmail.com. The website is Israel Sports and News Radio.

Nehemia: Guys, I’ll post the link on nehemiaswall.com. Head over to his website and get involved.

Ari: The radio I do because I believe… We try to talk about legitimate things, how I feel. I’ve called out Bibi a few times, I’m not gonna kiss up to him all the time. We call on other politicians, other things in Israel. We actually did a segment about things we don’t like about Israel that we want to change. We did little things, like how the bank has weird hours. The bank is like Monday to Thursday, 8-12.

Nehemia: It really is weird.

Ari: Yeah, Monday to Thursday 8-12, but 4-6. And then Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday is 8-1. That’s absurd, and those little things actually have an effect on the economy. When you don’t have uniform things, you disrupt people’s flow, disrupt people’s workday. Israel, even right now, before the Messiah comes, should really be an economic power. It’s not bad. They say it’s the third stable economy in the world, I think, and they do some good things. But look, 70 percent of people are in the red in Israel. It really shouldn’t be that way, with all the things we invent, high tech world.

But there’s these little things that hold us back, little things of productivity. And I think if we remove those, people will do a lot better. There’s a lot of people that live under the poverty line. They really, really struggle, and it shouldn’t be that way, you know, in my opinion, and we remove these little things. People also have theories that it has a socialist nature to it, because it was started more by leftist socialists and the Zionist movement. And there’s certain things regarding policies that are more socialist. I don’t think that holds us back so much. I think it’s more the little things that stop our productivity, things not done correctly. And if we fix those, I think we’ll be in really good shape.

Nehemia: I gotta say, the term “socialist”… I lived a year in Communist China.

Ari: That’s real socialism.

Nehemia: No, are you kidding me? I saw more free market trade in Communist China than in some parts of America. Now, you have these situations in the US where if a little girl sells lemonade on her front lawn and doesn’t have the right licenses… I’m not joking, she can get arrested or her father could get arrested. In China, everything is for sale.

Ari: Let me ask you, because I don’t know a whole lot about it. What did you think of the justice system, because you hear all these stories… They could throw anyone in prison without a trial, all that kind of stuff. What did you notice?

Nehemia: Yeah, that’s all true.

Ari: Oh, wow, so that’s bad.

Nehemia: That’s bad, yeah. But that’s not necessarily related to the economic system.

Ari: Okay. But if the people in power in China, if they don’t like a certain guy, they can just throw him in jail.

Nehemia: Yeah, pretty much. It was funny, I would ask my students things about the government, and they’re like, “We can’t talk about that.” I’m like, “No, it’s fine, it’s all hypothetical.” They were like, “It doesn’t matter, it’s too scary.” They actually said it’s too scary.

Ari: Wow. Look, that’s one of the things I’m very happy about being here, there is freedom of press. There are certain things that are not allowed. Like if it’s for security issues, there are certain things they’re not allowed to reveal, or the media doesn’t get all the access. The US has similar things…

Nehemia: Are you kidding, after the Snowden leaks? I would ask my friends in China, not the students, I’d ask the adults about their lack of freedom. And they’d say, “Well, you know what? I have an iPhone and I don’t worry about where my next meal is gonna come. And isn’t that a form of freedom, as opposed to my grandparents, who quite literally starved to death?” And their point is, “We have economic freedom, and that’s more important to us than whether we can badmouth the government.”

Ari: That’s an interesting point. I guess it’s all what you prefer. Do you want to be poor and chew out the government, or to feel comfortable? I don’t know. Who knows? It’s hard. What are your thoughts about that? What do you think?

Nehemia: You know, I’m a libertarian, and I really do believe there should be as small a government as possible, and it should stay out of the way of the people. It really pains me…

Ari: Shot on goal.

Nehemia: Oh, that was so close. We almost got a goal.

Ari: Good save.

Nehemia: Anyway, it pains me to see the socialist aspects of the United States… Oh, I wanted to say Israel, but there was a Freudian slip. You know, we’ve got these things going on in the US, which are literally more socialist than communist China.

Ari: Do you think China will ever change? I guess after the Messiah comes, they’ll change. But in the meantime, do you think there’ll be a change where you are allowed to say bad things about the government? Because some things change after time. Some things go through a maturation process.

Nehemia: You want to know what I honestly think?

Ari: Yeah.

Nehemia: I think it’s more likely that you won’t be able to say bad things about the government in the western so-called “free world.” I think Obama and the Western countries… And not just Obama. With everything that was leaked by Snowden, that didn’t start under Obama. We’re going in the direction of China, rather than China going in the direction of us. And that really scares me.

Ari: It does, yeah. And it should, it should scare a lot of people. But I don’t know if there’s any Messianic prophecies about that. That’s something that would scare me, but then I’m comforted by the belief that the Messiah will come and that even as bad as things may be, that there’ll be a good thing at the end, light at the end of the tunnel, that type of thing.

Nehemia: Right, and I sometimes look at this and think this is the khevley Mashiach, the birth pangs of the Messiah. What’s your view on that?

Ari: I think so, too. Just like a woman, before she gives birth… Oh, there’s a shot on goal.

Nehemia: We almost got a goal. This is so painful.

Ari: Yeah, almost in the 80th minute, by the way. That means there’s 10 minutes left of regular time before extra time, and it’s still 1-1.

Yeah, birth pangs of a woman before she gives birth, it’s most painful right at the end, right before she gives birth. And that’s the idea behind the Messiah, is that before He comes, it’ll be the darkest before the dawn, all that kind of stuff. So, that’s something that looks like it’s happening in the world. I mean, Iran is gearing up. Also, North Korea apparently has nukes. There’s a bunch of countries that have nukes. I heard Dr. Shore say there’s never been a weapon in history that has never been used at some point. So, once all those countries use nukes, it will be pretty scary. I mean, again, hopefully all that stuff doesn’t happen. But if that does happen, it still doesn’t deter my faith that the Messiah will come, that’s for sure.

Nehemia: I mean, I think we need him now. It’s almost like, “Come on.” It’s like in those old Greek plays, when everything was hopeless. And then they had this idea of Deus ex machina, which was that God comes out of nowhere and saves everything. Like we need this to happen.

Ari: Yeah, salvation happens in a second, all that kind of stuff. I’ve discussed this with different people. As far as the world operating… And again, I want to be careful about this, because the world’s had other turbulent times. There are certain parts where the world looked like it was in danger of ending. Even the Cuban Missile Crisis in ‘61. I mean, that was something like World War III.

My guess, my assumption based on world events would be, if the Messiah doesn’t come in, let’s say 20 years, I don’t know how the world will last. I mean, it’s possible, obviously. But I don’t know. I don’t understand that. I don’t know how it would be that all these countries that have nukes aren’t going to use them and there won’t be other serious problems.

But look, there was the Cold War for a long time, and people thought that would get hot and it didn’t. We could be sitting here 20 years from now and the Messiah doesn’t come, and we’re chatting about someone else. But again, it’s kind of out of my spectrum. You know, I think he’s got to come pretty soon.

Nehemia: I look at it a little bit different. I look at history. If you were living in a village in the Ukraine or something like that, during World War II, I don’t know that any human being in history has seen things as bad as that.

Ari: That’s a good point.

Nehemia: I’m not even talking about the Holocaust. I’m talking just from war. Tens of millions of people being slaughtered, whole cities wiped out. And from their perspective, it was like, “Well, if the Messiah is not gonna come now, he’s never gonna come.”

Ari: That’s true.

Nehemia: And so, in that respect, maybe we got it pretty good with the Internet and Facebook and iPhones.

Ari: That’s true. That’s a good point. If you were in World War II especially if you were in Auschwitz, you’d definitely think that Messiah is gotta come or that’s it. But what happened instead was the State of Israel, which I believe is part of the footsteps to help bring Mashiach, that it’s the beginning of the redemption, part of the redemption. Rav Kook talks about that in a lot of his writings. And again, like I said, hopefully it’s all possible. And the world in certain pockets is pretty good. I think Israel is one of those places, America in certain places. But again, all those people starving to death, there has to be some type of change, obviously. I would love to see it happen before the Messiah comes, but if not, then when the Messiah comes, I believe that those changes will happen positively.

Nehemia: Now, we’ve got a minute-and-a-half left in the game before we go into, I guess, the overtime.

Ari: Yeah, the extra time, if you will. We don’t know how long…

Nehemia: I want to pay attention, what’s going on? We’re in a tie.

Ari: Yeah, 1-1.

Nehemia: It’s a disaster.

Ari: Yeah. Beitar got the goal early in the second half, Be’er Sheva responded and answered a few minutes after that. Pretty soon we’ll have extra time. We don’t know how long that will be, because that’s the referee’s discretion. He’s got to judge how many minutes were not played. Yeah, we’re in extra time. So, the clock’s stopped and about four minutes of extra time, then we’ll see what’s gonna happen. Be’er Sheva’s right in front of us. See, there’s no clock, so we don’t know how much the extra time is. We’re just told four minutes. This is a good possession for Be’er Sheva. They’re in Beitar’s zone, good momentum. They’re going out to the right side. They’re wasting time a bit. Maybe they’re trying to milk the last two minutes, break it up. And there’s a whistle. It’s very common in most sports, if you have a lead is to milk the clock. Oh, that’s it. That’s the game.

Nehemia: The game is over. It’s a tie.

Ari: This game ended in a tie, there were no penalty kicks.

Nehemia: So, here you go, the game ended in a tie. Beitar Jerusalem 1, Hapoel Be’er Sheva 1. 1-1, nobody won the game, and that’s it. And one more time, what’s your website?

Ari: Israelsportsandnewsradio.com. You can email me, messiahhour@gmail.com. Give me your feedback, people. I want to hear from you. What do you want me to do? Give me some advice, give me corrections, complaints and whatever. I’m not saying I’m going to follow all of them, but I will listen bli neder, so please do that for me. Please help me out.

Nehemia: And guys, I’m not gonna listen to it, so don’t even bother. Shalom.

Well, I enjoyed that thoroughly, but I don’t know if it was a typical soccer experience. I loved talking with Ari about everything from the Messianic expectations of an Orthodox Jew, to the dangers of socialism in the State of Israel, and beyond.

For me, the major takeaway was this concept of shots on goal, or shots on net, and how in soccer that’s used to keep the other team on the defense and tire out the goalie. I think we face a very clever enemy who’s trying to wear us down by keeping us running backwards and is trying to tire us out with shots on goal, both spiritually and physically. For me, some of those hardcore soccer fans have got it right. It’s not down to what we do on the pitch. Of course, we have to do our part, but without our Father in Heaven, we have no chance against this relentless enemy.

I want to end in prayer. “Avinu Shebashamayim, Father in Heaven, anakhnu ma’aminim. We proclaim ourselves believers in you and in your holy Torah. Ve’en lanu al mi lehisha’en, and we have no one upon whom we can rely. Ela al Avinu Shebashamayim, only our Father in Heaven. Father, we’re playing for our lives and our very souls against an enemy that wants to physically harm us and spiritually exterminate us. Sometimes, the enemy comes at us like Haman and Hitler, with gas chambers and gallows. Other times he charges at us like Antiochus and Stalin, wanting to strip us of our faith and get us to join his diabolical team by abandoning You. Anything to divide us from one another and separate us from You, all with the goal of ultimately destroying us.”

“Father, you have given me the honor of being part of a diverse team made up of players with different skills and abilities from all over the world. Please, Father, give me the humility to be united with those who stand up for Your name and Your people, Israel, even if they’re on the other side of the pitch. We’re all facing the same enemy and acknowledge that it’s not down to what we do. Our enemy has a powerful team and wants us on the defensive, running backwards. He keeps kicking at our net, trying to tire us out. But I believe your Prophets, Father, that this game of history will not end in a tie. We will win through our faith in You.”

“But right now, Father, I believe we’re in extra time, in the 91st minute. This means we’re close to the end, but it also means we don’t know how much longer we need to keep holding on. Please send us your Mashiach soon in our days. Until then, we will continue to drive forward and put the enemy on the defense by the Holy power of Your glorious name. Amen.”

This episode of Hebrew Voices was sponsored by George and Sean in Nevada. Toda, thank you. Quick shout out to Sarai, Tamar and Jacob. Shalom, y’all.

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