Respected by the President | Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel

[Music] The New York Times has a column in its Sunday magazine called the ethicist in which a person who was supposedly expert in the area of ethics opines on some issue of the day. This goes back to a column that appeared in the ethicist going back to 2002. At that time the ethsist was a gentleman by the name of Randy Cohen. And a question was posed to the ethsist. It was written in by a woman who had just concluded a real estate transaction. She was helped on her side by a real estate broker who was an Orthodox Jew and very competent and very polite and very kind. Uh and she was really very grateful to him for the wonderful work she did. So she extended her hand to him. But he refused to shake her hand and he said please forgive me uh because of my religious beliefs I will not shake the hand of any woman or touch any woman other than my wife. I was very insulted, says the letter writer to the ethicist, and I was wondering, I believe in non-discrimination that he wouldn't shake my hand. I was so insulted by that. I'm thinking of tearing up the contract. What do you think? And the ethicist responded, you're absolutely right. You should tear up the contract. 3 weeks later, I was invited to the White House for the Kaneka, the annual Kaneka party hosted by President George W. Bush. And President Bush would pose for pictures together with the first lady with the various guests who came to the White House for the Kaneka party. And as we were standing online, along came somebody from the White House staff and came over to those of us who were wearing yamakas or who looked like we were Orthodox. And he said, "The president and first lady are very receptive and very sensitive to your religious concerns. And therefore, if you are a man and you do not extend your hand to the first lady, she won't extend her hand to you. If you are a woman and you don't extend your hand to the president, he won't extend his hand to you because we respect your religious beliefs. And I was thinking to myself, the ethicist Randy Cohen says, "Tear up the contract." The president of the United States says, "I respect what you're doing. I respect what you stand for." And so we speak about va we have the opportunity to tell the world, "Yes, we stand for something different. And if you can't handle that, then tear up your contract." That's your choice. But recognize that that the highest offices of this land, the presidency of the United States, he does recognize the importance of maintaining that level of separation between man and woman. And that's something that commands respect in the eyes of the world. So, let's not give in to what the rest of the society tells us. Whether it's in the pages of the New York Times or anywhere else, we have our own code of conduct, and we're going to remain true to it. And the really great people of the world will look at us and say,