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Shabbat Shalom:
''There is nothing new under the sun.'' King Solomon taught, and any sin or defect of character we read in the magazines or newspapers or watch on TV has been done before in some variation, and chances are our Sages have discussed it.
Yes, pigeon flyers are ineligible to be judges or witnesses as per the Mishna in Tractate Sanhedrin Bavli 24a, regardless if Sports Illustrated calls it a 'sport'.
Also ineligible to be judges or even witnesses at dice players, those who lend with interest, and sheviis merchants. (Sheviis are fruits grown during the Sabbatical year when we are to let the land rest and only use produce that we gathered in the year before).
Pigeon racers are ineligible not only because they are gambling, but because they also use pigeons with weights on them, so they can fly only as high as their neighbors roof top roost, and lure the neighbor's pigeons away. Further pigeon racers tend also to be involved with cock fighting and other forms of animal bating, which the Rabbis in the Gemorah found abhorrent.
All of those that the sages found ineligible, while on its face, society today, turns a blind eye, and sees nothing wrong with those who play games with dice, or who lend or even borrow with interest, the sages all saw this as a form of theft. Its part of ''the something for nothing mentality''. And these folks, they believed, could be easily bribed, or thinking selfishly while judging or testifying and could not be trusted in a court. (T. Sanhedrin Bavli 24b- 25b).
It was not by a lark (horrible pun) that Mel Brook's 1968 movie The Producers had the Nazi play- write Franz Liebkind, as a pigeon racer.
"LIEBKIND
(looking up)
Oh joy of joys! Oh, dream of
dreams! I can't believe it.
(he turns to the pigeons)
Birds, birds, do you hear? Otto,
Bertz, Heintz, Hans, Wolfgang, do
you hear? Ve are going to clear
the Fuhrer's name. Fly, fly,
spread the words.
HE OPENS THE CAGES AND SETS THE BIRDS FREE."
(looking up)
Oh joy of joys! Oh, dream of
dreams! I can't believe it.
(he turns to the pigeons)
Birds, birds, do you hear? Otto,
Bertz, Heintz, Hans, Wolfgang, do
you hear? Ve are going to clear
the Fuhrer's name. Fly, fly,
spread the words.
HE OPENS THE CAGES AND SETS THE BIRDS FREE."
It must be tough to get a Bet Din in Vegas.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Arthur Segal
"Pigeon racers are considered ineligible to be witnesses or judges (B.
Sanhedrin 24b). Check out this week's edition of Sports Illustrated for a
long article profiling pigeon racers. Wonders never cease."
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