“Torah learning comes first,” band leader Binyamin Zev Ross explains. “The Mets were actually very understanding"

The Ross family band, ROCK MISHPACHA, had to cancel their planned performance at Citi Field on August 15th in honor of Jewish Heritage Day due to the band members’ yeshivah schedules.

Their first invitation to the home of the New York Mets came a few years ago, when Rabbi Yitzie Ross, who runs Little League baseball in the Five Towns, took his kids to watch the Mets play. “It’s pretty family friendly over there, and when they heard the kids playing music, they invited us to perform. We performed on the stage there in 2019, and they loved it,” Rabbi Ross says.

The day after the performance, the teenage band was invited back. Rabbi Ross figures that they were impressed with their humility as well as their musical prowess. “A lot of bands get up there, and they’re so arrogant and full of themselves,” he notes. “When my kids play, they’re having fun and letting others enjoy it too.”

When the boys’ yeshivos made the decision to begin earlier for the Elul zeman, and it wound up conflicting with the Mets scheduled game time for the night, the Rosses had a family discussion. They could have requested permission to be off yeshivah but decided not to.

“Torah learning comes first,” band leader Binyamin Zev Ross explains. “The Mets were actually very understanding and are looking forward to getting us a different date.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 874)