Next Friday, August 5, will be the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Rio De Janeiro.
Minister of Sport and Culture Miri Regev has announced that she will be skipping the opening ceremonies due to being a representative of Israel, the "sole Jewish State on the planet" and it being inappropriate to desecrate Shabbos in that role. Attempts to house her close to the event failed when security said they could not guarantee her safety with those arrangements.
Kol Hakavod to Miri Regev for taking this stance. Regev is traditional, but not religious and not normally Shabbos observant. I am sure it was not an easy decision to make. How often do you get to represent your country on an international stage as big as the Olympics? Regev chose to represent Israel in a different capacity -as one who is sensitive to Jewish culture, specifically Shabbos observance, despite everyone's, including her own, personal decision whether to observe or not.
I am assuming she is not stopping the entire Israeli Olympic team from participating but made the decision for herself alone. If the decision included the entire team, I am sure we would hear sharp criticism of her in the news.
If Regev were religious this would be more expected and less noteworthy. Being that she isn't, that makes the decision even more difficult to have arrived at and more praiseworthy.
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