[Avodah] Chillul HaShem and Non-Jews

[Prof. Levine]

Redirected at the suggestion of an areivim moderator to avodah. YL

At 04:32 PM 11/15/2011, Zev Sero wrote:

  >And that is precisely where I am coming from.  But of course anyone can
  >claim that the "fifth chelek" supports him!  What test is there?  The
  >fifth chelek cannot contradict the first four.  And what is the fifth
  >chelek anyway?  It is mesoras yisroel.  In this case, our mesorah is
  >precisely what these people are doing, while those who object are all
  >coming from an alien perspective.

Your mesorah may be "precisely what these people are doing,"  but it
is certainly not the mesorah of RSRH,  ZT"L, and many, many other
Jews.  It was certainly not the mesorah of Rav Shimon Schwab,
ZT"L.  In his essay Chillul Hashem that I have posted at

http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/chillul_hashem_r_schwab.pdf

he wrote

The second sentence of Sh'ma Yisroel begins with the
command: "You shall love Hashem", which is interpreted by
our Sages: "Let the name of Hashem become beloved through
you." In other words, we are supposed to lead the kind of
exemplary life which would contribute to the universal
adoration of G-d and which would, in turn, enhance the glory
and lustre of the Torah, adding respect for the dignity of the
Jewish people as a Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation.
The very opposite of the sanctification is the desecration
of the Name as condemned by the Prophet with the scathing
words (Yechezkel 36): "They came to the nations and
desecrated my Holy Name, so that one said to them, is this
the people of G-d who came from His land?"

Every form of Chillul Hashem lowers the awareness of
the Divine Presence in the world. But if the desecrator
happens to be a professed Torah observer or, even worse, a
so-called scholar of the Torah, then the Chillul Hashem not
only weakens the respect for Torah on one hand, but
strengthens on the other hand the defiance of the non observer
and adds fuel to the scoffers, fanning the fires of
religious insurrection all around. Chillul Hashem is
responsible, directly or indirectly, for the increase of frivolity,
not be surprised reading the harsh words of condemnation
we find in the Talmud: "He who has committed Chillul
Hashem, even Teshuvoh, Yom Kippur and suffering cannot
fully atone for his sin until the day of his death (Yoma 86)."
"Better to commit a sin in secrecy than to commit Chillul
Hashem in public (Kiddushin 40).

"There is no delay in the Divine punishment for Chillul
Hashem, whether committed knowingly or unknowingly
(ibid.)".

"If one steals from a non-Jew, swears falsely and dies, his
death is no atonement for his sin because of Chillul Hashem"
(Tosefta B. Kamma, 10).



At 04:32 PM 11/15/2011, Zev Sero wrote:

 >And that is precisely where I am coming from.  But of course anyone can
 >claim that the "fifth chelek" supports him!  What test is there?  The
 >fifth chelek cannot contradict the first four.  And what is the fifth
 >chelek anyway?  It is mesoras yisroel.  In this case, our mesorah is
 >precisely what these people are doing, while those who object are all
 >coming from an alien perspective.

Your mesorah may be "precisely what these people are doing,"  but it
is certainly not the mesorah of RSRH,  ZT"L, and many, many other
Jews.  It was certainly not the mesorah of Rav Shimon Schwab,
ZT"L.  In his essay Chillul Hashem that I have posted at

http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/chillul_hashem_r_schwab.pdf

he wrote

The second sentence of Sh'ma Yisroel begins with the
command: "You shall love Hashem", which is interpreted by
our Sages: "Let the name of Hashem become beloved through
you." In other words, we are supposed to lead the kind of
exemplary life which would contribute to the universal
adoration of G-d and which would, in turn, enhance the glory
a
Redirected at the suggestion of an areivim moderator to avodah. YL

At 04:32 PM 11/15/2011, Zev Sero wrote:

 >And that is precisely where I am coming from.  But of course anyone can
 >claim that the "fifth chelek" supports him!
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