[Avodah] Chillul Ha Shem

Professor L. Levine via Avodah avodah at lists.aishdas.org
Thu Dec 29 06:32:06 PST 2016


The is from from Rav Shimon Schwab's essay Chillul Ha Shem that appears in Selected Writings.  the entire article may be read at


http://tinyurl.com/goqh7ol


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.

While it is obvious that the vast majority of loyal and
observant Torah Jews deal honestly and correctly with their
fellow men, a very small minority of criminal perpetrators
suffices to cast sinister aspersions on all orthodox Jews and,
what is worse, on orthodox Judaism as a way of life. The
Chillul Hashem of a few individuals provides excuses for the

doubter, and encourages the desecration of Torah learning,
Torah education and Torah influence. To defraud and
exploit our fellowmen, Jew or gentile, to conspire, to betray
the Government, to associate with underworld elements all
these are hideous crimes by themselves. Yet to the outrage
committed there is added another dimension, namely the
profanation of the Divine Name and that means the
profanation of all that is supposed to be held sacred by us as
well as - in their heart of hearts - by the perpetrators
themselves. What a sorry picture that is.

Suppose I have cheated my neighbor or my Government
and then I stand in the midst of a congregation of honest and
decent men and women to recite the Kaddish which is the
prayer for Kiddush Hashem in the world. What audacity!
What a shame! Can there be a worse contradiction than the
strict Sabbath observer who may also be a stickler for
Kashrus and who at the same time violates the spirit of
Shabbos and Kashrus during the week with non-kosher
money manipulations?

Let us repeat. The profaners and the desecrators are

only a handful of unscrupulous people and we even hope
that some of them will be proved innocent. But it needs only
very few violators to give us all a rotten name, aiding and
abetting our many adversaries and antagonizing our few
friends.

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.

__________________________________________________________

Note that from the first paragraph it seems that Rav Schwab considers someone who has not as yet been convicted of anything, but who is accused of a crime to be guilty of Chillul HaShem.  Apparently he feels that one should conduct oneself in such a manner that one cannot even be accused of a crime even if the accusation is false.


YL


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