Sacred Letters: Why You Should Not Compromise Your Values

when is it appropriate to compromise on values as Jews were here to become lamplighters we're here to inspire other people whether you're a rabbi a teacher or the workforce a parent at home a spouse we're here to in Brighton with and that's not even a word we're here to illuminate Inspire our environment we're here to make our environment not just respond to it on the other hand we want to make people comfortable so how do we know when it's appropriate or when it isn't appropriate to make compromises so for example I remember a couple of years ago I was working as a hospital chaplain the Jewish hospital but most of the patients were certainly not observant they're going through a hard time I'm there to bring Comfort to them and they want to hug which is obviously not appropriate when it's opposite genders it's not something I can do on the other hand it's going to make them feel comfortable how do you know when it's appropriate to compromise when it's inappropriate to compromise you're on vacation with your family there's an attraction that your children really want to see perhaps they'll be disappointed if they don't see it but it's against your Jewish values you do it you don't do it what do you do you're in the workforce you have a a lunch meeting there's going to be situations where you got to adhere to your values and it may be uncomfortable when is it appropriate to compromise so in 1963 there was a person who was in vocational school the rabbit was trying to motivate him to inspire other people bring them closer to Yiddish kite this person asked the rib about not wearing a yamaka in school because it will be less intimidating toward other Jewish people they'll be able to reel them and he has the rep is opinion the rabbit told him two things number one the guidelines in the code of Jewish law we don't treat them like merchandise we can't sell what may seem as a trivial sin to earn a more important Mitzvah if it's safe secret it's sacred we don't get to assess its value number two more importantly what is the message we convey when we're compromising on our values even if it's something as quote unquote trivial as removing a yamaka you can argue that it's not biblical and where do you see that it's a clear application at the end of the day when we don't adhere to our values what is the message we're conveying we don't believe that this is absolutely true because it's malleable we can change it and if it's not absolutely true and we can change it it's malleable why are we preaching it and all that does is it sends conflicting and confusing messages obviously nobody's perfect but people need to see consistency people want to see that what we do is actually who we are not just what we do it's a deep part of who we are we're deeply saturated with what we believe in and with that we have the ability to inspire others but if not when we do especially intentionally display that lack of consistency we're giving permission for other people to compromise and perhaps in much worse areas stay strong friends that's my story and I'm sticking to it