Miketz 2008

A few years ago, I was on a plane coming in for a landing. When we had just touched down, the flight attendant reminded us to remain in our seats with seatbelts fastened until the plane had arrived at the gate and the captain had turned off the ‘fasten seatbelts’ sign. While we were still braking on the runway, two men in their twenties, got up, collected their bags, and walked to the front of the plane. The flight attendant, who was still strapped into her seat, said to them “You must return to your seats immediately.”

One of the two men waved his hand, and said, “It’s all right.”

“No, it’s not,” she said. “Return to your seats!”

“Don’t worry about it,” said one of the young men, and they ignored her, and continued talking.

This was annoying to me. Not only was it dangerous, these guys were taking advantage of the other passengers, who were abiding by the rules. But what really bothered me was that the two men were wearing the dark jackets and black hats of the Ultra-Orthodox—and speaking in Hebrew. As they were standing near me, I said to them “זה חילול השם!” This is a desecration of Gd’s name!

Why should that be? Why should this be anything more than two young men who are selfish and obnoxious? One person to whom I told this story said that it is because Jews are a minority, and therefore people who don’t know too much about them will judge Jews on the basis of these two young men. That is true, but it goes further than that.

To fully understand the term “חילול השם,” we need to understand the opposite of this phrase, “קדש השם,” sanctification of Gd’s name. In Deuteronomy Rabbah there is a story about Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach, who was extremely poor and had to work hard to support himself. His students convinced him to upgrade his infrastructure by buying a donkey. If he worked more efficiently, they reasoned, he would have more time to teach them. He agreed, and handed them some of his meager cash, and they went off to the market to buy a donkey.

They brought back a fine donkey, and while he was admiring it, he asked what that string was around the donkey’s neck.

“Just a string,” they shrugged.

“But it seems to have a little bag attached to it.” They looked in the bag and found a very valuable pearl, worth a hundred times what they had paid for the donkey.

Rabbi Shimon was agitated. “Run back to the market and return this pearl to the man who sold you the donkey, before he goes home!” The students ran back and found the man, an Ishmaelite, and gave him the pearl. 

Overjoyed, the Ishmaelite clutched the pearl to his chest, and cried “Blessed be the Gd of Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach!”

The Ishmaelite did not praise the rabbi, but Gd! That is the problem with the two young men on the plane. Not that people will say ‘those two Jews are obnoxious,’ or even ‘all Jews are obnoxious,’ but that they would say ‘that is where the Jewish religion leads you.’ ‘That is what it means to follow the Jewish Gd.’

Bernie Madoff is a Jewish financier who ran a huge ponzi scheme, stealing perhaps as much as fifty billion dollars. Abraham Foxman, the director of the Anti-Defamation League, says that the case has prompted an outpouring of anti-semitism around the world. But, he adds, anti-semites do not need facts to criticize Jews. Foxman says that we should admit that Jews are people like anyone else, and there have always been obnoxious Jews, Jews without morals, and Jewish crooks. Bernie Madoff’s crime may have been the biggest of its kind. Jewish charities have closed, Yeshiva University lost eight percent of their endowment, people have been ruined, and it seems that at least one person has committed suicide. But this, according to Abraham Foxman, is only a matter of degree. We should not draw any conclusions from the fact that Mr. Madoff is Jewish.

To follow this logic is also to say that Jews are really no different from anyone else. It is always bad when anyone does something bad, but there is no such thing as חילול השם. 

I disagree. Judaism is not just an organization of left-handed people, or a club of people who went to a certain university. It is a religion, and one which takes a certain moral position. The rabbis state that it is as if Gd is diminished if Gd’s people misbehave, and that is true whenever someone who claims to be religious commits a crime. It doesn’t matter whether that person is Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, or Hindu. 

In the Torah this week we continue the story of the remarkable Joseph, he of the coat of many colors. Joseph is remarkable because he has the opportunity to sin without anyone knowing, and he refuses to do so because it is a חילול השם, a desecration of Gd’s name. In last week’s parasha, Potiphar’s wife tries to get Joseph to sin with her. The Torah tells us that there is no other person in the house. Joseph says “How can I do this evil thing, and commit a sin against Gd.” 

Our עץ חיים translates this as “a sin before Gd,” but the Hebrew does not say וחטאתי לפני אלקים, but rather וחטאתי לאלקים. The sin is the sin of חילול השם, the sin of reducing Gd by bringing shame to Gd’s name.

In this week’s Torah portion, Miketz, Joseph has an opportunity to ingratiate himself with Pharaoh. He interprets Pharaoh’s dreams, and Pharaoh says there is surely no one as wise as you! Joseph chooses rather to use this opportunity to perform קדש השם, to bring praise to Gd. In the nine verses in which Joseph interprets the dream, he mentions Gd five times. Pharaoh appoints Joseph the ruler of Egypt not because he is good at interpreting dreams, nor because he has a great idea for avoiding famine. He appoints Joseph because Pharaoh sees that רוח אלקים בו. The spirit of Gd is in him. Because everything that Joseph does is to avoid חילול השם and to create קדש השם, Pharaoh sees the spirit of Gd in him.

I did not grow up wearing a kippah, nor is it halakhicly necessary to wear one. Why do I wear one? By doing so, I am raising the stakes on my own behavior. By publicly declaring myself a religious Jew, I am asking everyone to see my behavior as being either חילול השם or קדש השם. If I give money to charity or if I do not, if I am polite or rude to the woman in the supermarket, if talk about people behind their backs, I am asking those who see my behavior to judge not merely me, but to judge Judaism, and yes, to judge Gd Himself.

Does this cause me to always behave well? Is my entire life a קדש השם? Of course not. But it helps a little bit. When I am about to do something I shouldn’t, as a person who is obviously Jewish, I think זה חילול השם. And sometimes I change what I was going to do.

How much better it would have been had Bernie Madoff, who apparently loved the Jewish community, had done the same! Many people have suffered directly from his actions, many more will suffer indirectly when charities and foundations will be unable to raise money from those he cheated. But all Jews have suffered from being linked to this Jew, Bernie Madoff, and Gd Himself suffers too.

No problem is without an opportunity. Chanukkah is a time for rededication. Let us rededicate ourselves to the cause of קדש השם. Let us always strive, and certainly sometimes fail, but always strive to behave in such a way that those who see us will say “Blessed is the Gd of the Jews!” Shabbat Shalom and Chag Chanukkah Sameach!