I am still not sure what qualifies as a kiddush hashem, and conversely as a chilul hashem.
It seems that every time a Jew does something good, usually in public but not necessarily so, it is touted as a kiddush hashem, while every public bad act is touted as a chilul hashem. These concepts are relatively vague, like some others, and people put a lot of their own biases into determining when something qualifies or does not.
The incident that made me think of this now was a goal scored in a Chinese soccer game.
Eran Zahavi is an Israeli footballer who recently signed a contract to play for a Chinese team. In his first game playing for the Chinese the other day Zahavi scored a goal and an assist to lead his new team to victory. Zahavi wrapped himself in an Israeli flag to celebrate, and when the team went out after the game for a celebratory meal, Zahavi, reportedly, refused to eat from the dog with the rest of his [Chinese] teammates.
source: Behadrei
This has been touted online as a great kiddush hashem.
But is it really a kiddush hashem? Zahavi isnt religious and from what I could gather from the various articles and comments he doesn't keep kosher. I didn't see an explicit reason given as to why he refused to partake in this Chinese delicacy; maybe it was for kashrut reasons or maybe he just didnt want to eat dog meat.
Wrapping himself in an Israeli flag isn't a kiddush hashem, but perhaps over time and if he does it often enough the Chinese will take a real liking to Israel, so that is good.
The game Zahavi played so well in was on Shabbos, so it is difficult to say that what he did was a kiddush hashem.
It was a bold and confident act to refuse to eat what everyone else was eating in a celebration like that. Surely it was a good thing he did. I am just not sure it qualifies as a kiddush hashem.
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