The Worst Aveira

I always try to focus on the Good, the Light, the Holy, the Sublime and the Transcendent. For darkness and evil we have sooooo many blogs, websites, newspapers and other forms of media. I want Mevakesh to be an island of purity.

But there is something which is really bothering me so I must get it off my chest. I will not relate to specific people or events [there is a custom to talk about secular matter on shabbos after saying "nicht shabbos geredt" - not shabbos talk. So too, one can think it is permitted to speak lashon hara after saying "nicht Chofetz Chaim geredt" - not Chafetz Chaim talk. The REALITY is that neither phrase permits forbidden speech] because there is no reason to name names and besides, to paraphrase what we say in our hataras nedarim "there are too many names to mention...."

There are many aveiros in the Torah. But there is one aveira that is in a sense worse than them all. All aveiros have some tikkun in this world but there is one aveira that doesn't get fixed until the person dies. An aveira worse than marrying a non-Jewish woman on Yom Kippur that falls out on Shabbos while eating a cheeseburger in a Church and bowing down to an idol while wearing a shatnez garment and shaving with a razor dressed like a woman. [WOW! BAD ONE!!]

What is this aveira??

It is called "Chilul Hashem". Yom Kippur alone doesn't help for Chilul Hashem. Neither does tshuva. Not even wearing a frock and round hat will help. Nor will cancer in 12 different places in the body while at the same time having a really annoying splinter in one's nose constitute a kappara. Only death atones together with tshuva, Yom Kippur and suffering. [Rambam Hil. Teshuva 1/4. See also pnmiyus ha-inyan in Pachad Yitzchak Rosh Hashana Maamar 12]]

A Chilul Hashem is caused whenever one acts in a way not befitting their status. So if a public Rabbinic figure is involved in wrongdoing that is a classic Chilul Hashem. EVEN if he is shogeg it doesn't matter as Hashem's Name was violated and he was the cause. אחד שוגג ואחד מזיד בחילול השם says the Mishna in Avos.

I cannot tell you how sickened I am by people who make Chilulei Hashem. Their greed or tyvos or both get the better of them and they cast a dark shadow over everything holy and over every religious person.

Why do kids go off the derech? Why are there so many irreligious Jews living empty lives? It is to a great extent our fault. If we were pure and clean then everybody would want to be part of us. Frankly, if a person approaches me for a loan and is dressed very frum it doesn't convince me in the slightest that the money will be returned. [I am owed a significant amount of money by two men who both wear frocks and are accustomed to seeing the word "HaGaon" before their names. I don't know if I will ever see the money as the dates for return passed many moons ago].

So sweetest friends - we must do something radical to counter the constant Chilulei Hashem that we hear about. What should we do??

We have to make a Kiddush Hashem. That is all. In the way we speak and act and most importantly in monetary and tzniyus matters because that is where we get hit the hardest in the Chilul Hashem category.