Skip to main content

Thought for the Day: Chillul HaShem in Private

In case you haven't heard, let me be the first to bring your day down just a bit: on June 5, 2012 (27 Sivan, in case you want commemorate the yahrtzeit), 100 or so yeshiva students were kicked off an AirTran plane because they did not follow the instructions of the flight crew to turn off cell phones and to sit down, both violations of Federal Air Regulations.  A terrible chillul HaShem no matter how you spin it.  My question: what, exactly was the chillul HaShem?

You may think that is a crazy question, the chillul HaShem is obvious, isn't it?  I respectfully submit that the chillul HaShem is not obvious at all.  The mishna in Avos (4:5) quotes R' Yochanan ben B'roka as making two startling statements about chillul HaShem:

  1. One who makes a chillul HaShem in private will be repaid in public.
  2. There is no difference whether it was on purpose or by accident.
Wait... what is a chillul HaShem in private?  The Rambam says that when one averts his eyes from seeing something inappropriate, he is m'kadesh sheim shamayim.  If so, a chillul HaShem must occur when one simply does not avert his eyes.  R' Yochanan ben B'roka's words are now more than startling, they are chilling.  From the viewpoint, being kicked off the plane was the payment in public for some private chillul HaShem.  And so my question: What was the Chillul HaShem?

I once told a colleague (a goy and a dogmatic atheist) that I expected more out of Jew in terms of being polite and what not.  He was furious with me!  "How dare you think that Jews should be held to a higher standard!  Do you think you are better than other people?!"

I do, indeed, dare think that Jews should be held to higher standard.  The Am haNivchar, the nation chosen by the Creator of the world to be His ambassador to the world.  Darn tooten I expect more.  My boss expects more out of me than he expects out of the janitor.  I am not "better" than than the janitor, but I certainly have more education and I am expected to act accordingly.  Jews may not be "better" than any one else, but we are more educated.  We stood at Har Sinai and received direct instruction on being human from our beloved Creator.  More is expected from us.

So, in my personal opinion, the chillul HaShem is any time that a Jew says things like, "they're teenager and, you know, teenagers will be teenagers".  No.  They are Jews.  More than that, they are yeshiva students.  Bad enough that the world say such disgraceful behavior.  Far, far worse is that anyone thought it was excusable.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Day: Pizza, Uncrustables, and Stuff -- What Bracha?

Many years ago (in fact, more than two decades ago), I called R' Fuerst from my desk at work as I sat down to lunch.  I had a piece of (quite delicious) homemade pizza for lunch.  I nearly always eat at my desk as I am working (or writing TftD...), so my lunch at work cannot in any way be considered as sitting down to a formal meal; aka קביעת סעודה.  That being the case, I wasn't sure whether to wash, say ha'motzi, and bentch; or was the pizza downgraded to a m'zonos.  He told if it was a snack, then it's m'zonos; if a meal the ha'motzi.  Which what I have always done since then.  I recently found out how/why that works. The Shulchan Aruch, 168:17 discusses פשטיד''א, which is describes as a baked dough with meat or fish or cheese.  In other words: pizza.  Note: while the dough doesn't not need to be baked together with the meat/fish/cheese, it is  required that they dough was baked with the intention of making this concoction.  That is, even th
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: What Category of Muktzeh are Our Candles?

As discussed in a recent TftD , a p'sak halacha quite surprising to many, that one may -- even לכתחילה -- decorate a birthday cake with (unlit, obviously) birthday candles on Shabbos. That p'sak is predicated on another p'sak halacha; namely, that our candles are muktzeh because they are a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not  מוקצה מחמת גופו/intrinsically set aside from any use on Shabbos. They point there was that using the candle as a decoration qualifies as a need that allows one to utilize a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור. Today we will discuss the issue of concluding that our candles are , in fact, a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not מוקצה מחמת גופו. Along the way we'll also (again) how important it is to have personal relationship with your rav/posek, the importance of precision in vocabulary, and how to interpret the Mishna Brura.  Buckle up. After reviewing siman 308 and the Mishna Brura there, I concluded that it should be permissible to use birthday candles to decorate a cake on Shabbo
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: אוושא מילתא Debases Yours Shabbos

My granddaughter came home with a list the girls and phone numbers in her first grade class.  It was cute because they had made it an arts and crafts project by pasting the list to piece of construction paper cut out to look like an old desk phone and a receiver attached by a pipe cleaner.  I realized, though, that the cuteness was entirely lost on her.  She, of course, has never seen a desk phone with a receiver.  When they pretend to talk on the phone, it is on any relatively flat, rectangular object they find.  (In fact, her 18 month old brother turns every  relatively flat, rectangular object into a phone and walks around babbling into it.  Not much different than the rest of us, except his train of thought is not interrupted by someone else babbling into his ear.) I was reminded of that when my chavrusa (who has children my grandchildrens age) and I were learning about אוושא מילתא.  It came up because of a quote from the Shulchan Aruch HaRav that referred to the noise of תקתוק
Post a Comment
Read more