Rabbi Ahron Lopiansky: Personal Imperative of Living al Kiddush Hashem

the Rambam says that the Tuva is somebody who comes to the same place and circumstances as he did the Avera and he doesn't do it so as Hattori Mosca yong about fifty years ago I was here for met game I don't know if it's my worst Avera certainty laughs my biggest yes Shea Stadium don't don't say because I guess your age if you say Shea Stadium but I don't know if there was my worst life area but Bertha shame the Mitzvah of today is a is a great Mitzvah so I guess we'll use it as a bit of a Khepera I want to try to define one of the problems when we talk about things that is such a consensus on is that we sort of I don't know if the word is obfuscate but we sort of tend to have a vagueness thank you very much we we tend to be vague and then a lot of unclear grey areas open up so anytime you deal like with motherhood and apple pie and flag because everybody is so pro you have a hard time getting a sharp definition all right sister all is one of those topics and kiddush Hashem is one of those topics we all know the importance of kiddush Hashem we all have an intuitive sense it's nice to make a good impression you want people to think that you're wonderful and Judaism is wonderful Shem is wonderful but can we get a more specific understanding that will help us really define some of those areas that it's not clear what it's about let me pose I will make a because broccoli I've ever trained to catch and I found that speakers were trains to catch are very popular I've I've even had a few people buy me ticket sometimes the middle of the speech for the next train so it's it's M I I try to stick to then the kuda the point I'll stop the Rambam says he speaks a lot about our locus of kiddush Hashem the famous kiddush Hashem is when a person is threatened with death if he doesn't commit one of the great sins or a lesser sin in public different categories and all of those we are however enjoined to give our lives rather than to allow sauce Rivera and that's the kiddush Hashem the Rambam says there's another example of kiddush Hashem and he says color porush moverá Oh awesome Mitzvah if a person it's M if a person does not do in Aveiro or he does something proper lomi played over Bolam not because of any incentive low parkersville o year of lockers covered neither fear nor enticement nor covered elimedia bura bura who only because of hashem like Josefa Sadiq that is I raised him a caduceus ahem okay first of all um between Yosef and pootie far nobody knew what happened and the press got it wrong M you know so what does it mean a kiddush Hashem who was the kiddush Hashem more than that I'm troubled by where is the overlapping definition of kiddush Hashem jumping in a fire or the assisting from doing a nivara for no reason the world accept the same sham I am like Mike spoke the same from I am I mean to both wonderful things they're both they're both very very high moments but is there a common denominator other just a vague generality of being a wonderfully noble act is there something we can define what kiddush Hashem is that's something that really I find difficult I think it's important we do it we also when we say we want to make a kiddush Hashem for almost all olam it's kind of fake it's like we want to put on a little show a little dance a show so that they think we're wonderful and good and nice and fine those that's the issue I want to deal with and one maybe one more point on the Rambam the Rambam is talking here Butler shame shame I am 100% lachemann lachemann Rambam says is a unique motive that very few people ever reach the Rambam in quite a few places points this as being a incredible incredible act of a pure mitzvah it's a great mad Rhaegar but what does it have to do with public presentation and if I have a little bit so change of mind what are we talking about so I want to describe the point and then we'll see it in a year shall me um let's think about the word he'll wash em and kiddush Hashem what a spill mean what is kiddush mean so let's describe it as follows for people who believe that the world is material everybody believes the world's material we also understand the world's material physics knows what it's talking about chemistry knows what's talking about biology knows we're talking about the world is a physical world and the reality around us responds and conforms to physical laws and activities and I can take the greatest saint and I could I you know I I could take him apart biologically and he's and he is like anybody else but the question is anything living anything active has an engine that drives it what drives it and the answer of the secular world is it drives itself for itself cells are entities that do things to survive or else they would not have survived it's not because it's pre-programmed it's not because there's anything about a grand plan it's because it survives what motivates a person so a the bigger part of evolution of evolutionary biology today is spent on trying to describe human behavior in terms evolution and via soda a Soto's the fundamental axiom is people act in ways that will make them survive more themselves their species in other words the engine that drives the world is a material engine that's what a material world is we have a very different concept of a world there is a world as physical as described by science and we have no doubt about it but that is a shell and filling that shell is another engine that's driving it altruism can be described as materially driven and there are a hundred to one explanations every few weeks there's a new book explaining it's better for yourself it's sort of if everybody helps everybody else I'll need something ask insurance company it's better for the species it's it's a vestige of some of some past time when it was better those are all material explanations because the world is solidly material through through we have a different picture of the world inside a shell of a very physical shell there's an engine that is of a different nature and that's what we mean divine it's like the mind is to the brain we don't we believe in Neurology down to the last T except that's the beginning there's there's a content biology is a perfect description human being the shell not the content and the content is what we call the neshamah the reason why I reach out and help somebody is because my body is a glove to some sort of soul which is not physical it's not only not physical it has none of the motivations drives or anything that's in common with physical reality I have kedusha that's something it's a type of instinct that is not from material of material for material it's of spiritual for spiritual and it uses and controls my body to a certain degree for that purpose those are the two distinct worldviews of momentum and anima meaning if I if I hollow out the person and I say the shell without the content that's called pillo the word halau means avoid a modern avid halal space a hollow in the in himesh means a corpse a body that's soulless it's an empty it's there's a void inside it it it's it all it is is just the body pillow Hashem means that I present the world as being void of anything more than material kiddush Hashem the word Ducie is designation designation means I take a cup of water if somebody were to be mocked ich it to the base are mikdash this cup of water will be the same cup of water it would be the same chemical composition in the same plastic but it would have a soul to it a designation it is it is designated for something else this is no longer water its water that's there as a vehicle for something else so we have two worldviews and they they come they are at the core and at the essence the distinction between Emunah in its totality and kefir in its totality one sees the world as a mahkum hollow empty a void we can only look and explain it on its physical and material being that's all explanations and or we have a sense that everything has in itself a soul and that's called Kadosh it means a designation outside of its material self for some other purpose this is realized and manifested in two ways I can talk and preach all day long about wonderful things until the guy stops me over there but okay many good people in the world are idealistic and they wanna they wanna utopia of sorts and they preach to utopia but people who are more shall we say realistic and say ok that's a dream it's not a reality if you're an evolutionist who believes in the material world then the Utopia preaching is a dream that's not connected to reality it's not real you want to change the world that's what you want to do you can't change things everything has an inertia to itself when a person acts in a way that the that that what is driving the person well why is he doing what he's doing and my only answer can be that there's another set of instincts that I can't divine from the physical world because I must be a shelf or something else that is when people say no there must be something else inside a person there are two instances where that can be realized one I will do many things like a pyramid I'll work hard to make a lot of money I'll make a lot of money to enjoy myself I'll sacrifice I'll suffer hardships to cross a border to go to a country at great economic opportunities everything that I do can somehow be subscribed to a material well-being even if it in the short run it it's not pleasant but what about if somebody gives his life I'm giving my life for what in the physical world and yes I know the Taira that for the species it's better I want to tell you with my entire it's a horror I don't care much about the species I'd be very honest and I don't think anyone who really cares much about the species let the species take care of itself and I want to take care of myself when a person stands up and offers his life then people say there must be something bigger than what we call life then the vital signs on a hospital sheet and that's kiddush Hashem when I imbue I bring down into the world an undeniable message that there's more to the world and a human being than physical self fulfilling drives that's one second case when I do something that the only motive that can be subscribed it to it is something else yes I can do I can be altruistic I can do it you know I do a guy a favor you never know when it'll come back again it's still nice it's all a good thing but at the end of the day it is not if showing that the world has more than something physical I can do it for covet I can be honored institution it's nice its pleasant and if it's worth the money you put in but still it's something that that is ok you know it's it's it's um but when I find a person when yo savate sadiq does it it's not a question of who observed the Ansem act itself the very act of doing something the only thing that controlled your savate Sadiq is it's it's a restraint that comes not from this world every fiber of his body of his drives is urging him to do it and he says no yes Allah Kim something I can't do that is bringing a locust into the Brya so we have two areas where we are the ones that bring a Kurdish burrow into the Bria when we do mrs. nefesh and we do things with a certain purity of motive I want to quote a it's it's a Madras and it's something that is also your Xiaomi and both of them the Asami's gear sir fills in some pieces they complement each other it's the same story with a bit of a compliment so my suburb Sherman shotta do you saw me brings that rep Zimmermann shutter who was one of the very early canoas one of the zoo goes worked very hard at flax working flax flax seem to have been a very difficult that was his paranoia and it worked very hard at it his students came to him and said we I have a better business for you much easier and he bought him a donkey Himura so it says he bought it from a non Jew from Ishmael iya hood and I guess I don't know exactly what business is going to into but whoever was it was much easier his tongue beat him said you won't have to work so hard my obvious assumption is that if Jimmy MacArthur wouldn't work so hard he wouldn't use the other time for golfing he was a big time of hokum he was one of the pillars of the the sort of the forerunners the Mishnah they begin as the Mishnah he was a great Dyan he would use it for something very valuable I'm studying helping people leadership whatever it took so they found the diamond on Rollo so something considered Rebbe burkas a shemitah' share hash caja practice miniature maíam Icarus Perot who got you a diamond and that's it you know you have to drive the donkey that's it you know you said for life and again the life is going to be used will be used for wonderful things so if she later said does the person know about it no she said I did not buy diamond I bought a donkey so it says holla where zero Lisa smelly he returned it at non-jew the Kuril of Isis Mellie and that Ishmael II said baroque a shame a location bachata blessed be the god of shimmy bachata have a Mayim no social buzz of Adam at a demo no Scottish Morocco from the faithfulness of a human being you can extrapolate the faithfulness of God shanem on the solemn SCARA mitzvos that he's believed to pay for mitzvahs India shall me it says it says a piece before it says that when he came to him and told him you got rich in this net he said boy Havisham in bachata mash ma brittle or candy you die shimon bisciotti prefers to hear the words blessed be the god of the Jews may a guard call a Dane Alma more than the Tsar of anything in this world what happened you can talk and preach honesty all day long and it's it's talk and even you know and that's not that person is a hypocrite or doesn't mean it but can people really really be honest when there are zero consequences and you didn't rob anybody and so on no that's a non material value in the great world of evolution every animal ate the morsel of food that that it has and that made it survive and those poor animals that thought of of giving back the food didn't survive that's not that's not a material value it's not a material drive so when somebody introduces that value into the world that becomes God's presence in the world we speak about God when somebody speaks about a universe that is out there if somebody comes along you with the following hypothesis there is a universe somewhere we can't see it feel it touch it here at community in any way in which angels dance all day and I don't know you you know fill in the blanks a I can neither deny nor firm that and the real truth is it's a meaningless statement once you've told me it's not part of this world and it can't be and it can't connect to this world so I mean it discounts like a parallel but Verne bit a lemn it means nothing I come and say a Shem is faithful and naman and this and that and so on and so forth it has no no relevance to us so it's like everything else we talk about God it's like some sort of idle philosophical speculation but if a person brings name- into this world if on the body of Shem eben shut up the God of Shem eben shotta means that Shimon bachata is the body for the nish for the vinous into this world if a person can be an amen' a trusted person the way he was then ashamed Sam Munna comes his world and from that story of Shinobi shut up say Munna I understand what it means when Aminata Lajos Mason incredible so if we're to ask ourselves in the big picture and let's talk a few minutes about ourselves and what it means it's not about making a good impression it's not a PR job it's not a Shanda and the and it's not all of that it's certainly those things should matter but it's a lot deeper than that anything that we preach and believe in yes we have a responsibility we are a Kurdish Morocco's represented in this world it's not to talk about God it's not to preach about God it's not to make impressions it's about to bring a sense that there's something in the core of this world in terms of what drives it that's much deeper most people can't connect to it until I guess call you Cyril will open their eyes for most people the world is a physical loop it's sort of it's it enforces itself reinforces itself and just keeps on supporting itself but in a person's in a workplace and this is the area of where people who are out in the world have so much more to offer than people who are in the cloister mismanage each person needs to be where he is where coach mother put him when a person sees somebody day in day out in the workplace and the person is motivated by other things a person turns down it's not he's not a kind of nebbish guy and so on he's a rough tough businessman and he makes hard deals but every so often he says this is wrong and I born to it I think I says we cleared it with the law department they said they signed on they said this is brilliant that might make a new law after you get through with it but but as you've done it it's it's your you know it's it's it's excellent and you say I know as a businessman profit drives me but something drives me more than I'm a man before a businessman and and for what I tried I'm going to desist if a person has opportunities to wrong things and everyone figure out themselves in its setting and a person says no because there's something more to me and people notice it people understand it if if if I act considerate Lita's people pissed way beyond what would not be quiet and I do it because it's generally my drive to be em Moroccan alcohol myself that makes an impression people at least gain a sense that you know what there is something else to the world maybe it's only the Jews or maybe the Jews are just the they're just the forerunners of it there are harbingers of that type of thing and from us they see it the the world devoid of akka Rivera who is hollow and that's the Kailash M the world that has a cottage borough who as its corn as its drive that's kiddush Hashem and the only ones that can make it happen is us there's an extraordinary story then we'll finish with that there's extraordinary story about a Sherman shuttle that the Gomera brings and it fits the person and it's an understanding why only he could have done it tomorrow brings the sanhedrin that similar shot that had a brother yah am Ella they were kind of very different the animal killed her all Hofmeister oh she run away and not an easy was part of those kings in a second those Hellenized kings in the in the second temple era really trouble and one of the servants one of the slaves of Yanam l killed somebody and they hold him into the Sanhedrin to be tried and Sherman shutteth insisted that Yana hemella must come and be there how it has that logic explanation why that's not the relevant piece over here and when he walked in he sat down and she Musharraf told him a mode or Aguilar car via either Baja stand up they're going to testify against his servant and again there was an obligation for him to act as sort of the the trustee of some sort and you must stand on your feet like an accused and they will bear witness against you so he said and it's it says that the King turned to the people on the right to everybody else has said is that who you think and they all looked down on the ground they were scared they didn't want to say he looked at the people to the left of schemata and he was and they were scared they didn't want to say and cinema shot I told him he said Lola for Nainoa - Oh mate I'm not demanding in my name that you stand in front of me OLF name Misha Olive Oyl um I made a time it you're standing before God and that's why you're required to stand stand up the only person that has the right to make that demand is a person that lives that way if Shimon been shot at what to have a personal agenda then his ability to say that statement with their full with the full passion of a person who's conscious is clear would not exist if I don't feel that way and I don't act that way if my driving force is not a cottage bar hole and is not kiddush Hashem then I can't demand that the demand falls how long on his ears and and I can't say it with conviction Shimon Ben shutter whose very self was Bri Rahman Allah K - Amiata he could stand from the king and say you're not standing in my presence because my presence is the president of the divine it's something that we all take unfortunately many many times when people who represent us publicly should or our public persona are acting in ways less than we would be proud of we can talk write articles and do many other things when you act a certain way when your own presence is and again this is a type of thing it's like voting everyone can make the argument my vote doesn't count but when a hundred million people make that argument then it doesn't count if we make if every single person develops this sense in himself then the public face of our community communities would also be different to demand a pur integrity from the person standing in front of me they can't be me I can't demand integrity other person when I'm the one who's got an issue I've got to be able to say that I'm just a vehicle for allocation my shuttle so kiddush Hashem is probably the most appropriate it's our core mission as call Israel as Mike said and I'm talked about the personal level that mission is to project honestly because that's who we are that yes with physical cells with physical drives and needs and so on and even weaknesses but down deep there's a mechanism that drives us that is not of this world it's from somewhere else that every single person look and say brick ramana lekar of this person and this person this person could be in a small area it could be in many areas but that is kiddush Hashem and if we personally the more personally we embody that we're just a vehicle for a homeowner the shimmer shutter then we can demand with with with with the full confidence and end of and and the full passion of Emmis that from the Malacca I'm stand-in understand are standing in front of me somewhere along Claudius role is a group of individuals who each and every one is a vehicle for kiddush Hashem and those who are present Christ role as the Clow will certainly be that and together we'll be mikata shim-sham I am and bring down that same air Casa Lovell we began today at 8:30 in the morning with with the duffy only Shearer followed by another Duff Yomi Shearer and from 10 o'clock through this hour 30 different speakers teaching us Torah the Orthodox Union touches 24,000 students in high school every year doing the exact same thing teaching torah teaching yiddish guides we do programs on 22 campuses for students and universities and secular universities teaching them torah and touching torah for them we bring disabled members of our community hearing impaired members of our community closer to torah and allowing them to have their role in torah but we're beginning to realize that our membership the adults in the community also need additional opportunities for torah learning and this program today is the first of what we intend to be an ongoing program and making exciting and varying dimensions that are available to all of us throughout north america and beyond so thank you all for participating today we hope that you will continue in this partnership exploring our holy Torah in the years ahead thank you very much more Dobbin Meyer of now [Applause]