stoudemire

Over the summer, New York Knicks power forward Amar’e Stoudemire grabbed headlines—and not just Tablet Magazine’s—for his trip to Israel and flirtation with Judaism. Yesterday brought news of another quirky, über-talented black athlete’s earnest philo-Semitism: Ricky Williams of the Miami Dolphins (though he wants to be traded) revealed that he has been studying Hebrew and recently observed the Jewish Sabbath by dipping three times in his unheated hot tub and then spending from Friday evening through Saturday evening abstaining from television and reading. “When the day shifted from Saturday afternoon to Saturday night, even my thoughts shifted,” he related. “There was something very pure about that Saturday” (you can listen here). His wife apparently jokes that he is going to turn Tribe.