[Avodah] Dealing with Perpetrators

[Micha Berger]

RYL recently posted the following excerpt from Selected Writings by RSS,
with the entire chapter 23 ("Chillul Hashem") on his web site at
<http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/chillul_hashem_r_schwab.pdf>.

I think the quote raises a discussion of LH, malshinus, chilul hasheim,
tochakhah, and how to balance them which deserves a more Torah-sourced
discussion.

> All this comes to mind at this time since some perpetrators of Chillul
> Hashem are making the headlines of our daily newspapers. Certainly we
> are not sitting in judgment of the persons who are publicly accused
> and we have to wait whether the indictments will be borne out by
> irrefutable evidence. However, be it as it may, the Chillul Hashem is
> there in the worst possible way. "Rabbi" so and so, who sits in court
> with his velvet Yarmulka in full view of a television audience composed
> of millions of viewers, is accused of having ruthlessly enriched himself
> at the expense of others, flaunting the laws of G-d and man, exploiting,
> conniving and manipulating -- in short, desecrating all the fundamentals
> of Torah Judaism. And this sorry onslaught on our Jewish sensitiveness
> is repeated by similar allegations, proven or unproven, involving more
> prominent men who are stigmatized as orthodox Jews, sometimes even with
> so-called rabbinic diplomas.

> Therefore, no white-washing, no condoning, no apologizing on behalf of
> the desecrators. Let us make it clear that anyone who besmirches the
> sacred Name ceases to be our friend. He has unwittingly defected from
> our ranks and has joined our antagonists, to make us all suffer in his
> wake. And -- noblesse oblige -- the more prominent a man has become in
> orthodox Jewish circles the more obligated he must feel to observe the
> most painstaking scrupulousness in his dealings with the outside world.

Of course, such discussion should start with the sources RSS gives.

-micha

PS: Note that when not quoting the chapter title, I transliterated it 
"chilul hasheim". It's a chillul of the Eibishter's reputation. If
"Hashem" were intended as a qinui, IOW if we were speaking of He
Himself, would it make sense to say the Borei was made chol?