Latest / Rabbi Moshe Haber - Daily Mussar/Weekly Perasha / Rabbi Moshe Haber Path of the Just: Defending God's Honor and Communal Integrity 12.16.25
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- 0:00Hopefully it is today and is released directly to Hanukkah
- 0:04and is not even a stretch and now that he said one of the main
- 0:08we thought of about Hashem vowed Hashem comes out in a strong way
- 0:13as a strong. I mean and it makes the word
- 0:16canal, which is zealotry getting upset when someone does
- 0:23something that's anti Hashem. Let's see it through hand
- 0:26offices. She Akina the third branch of
- 0:30being of some person who loves Hashem is that you defend God's
- 0:34honor. Ji Adam Li karnella Shim
- 0:36shamayan sonet misanav hating those who hate Hashem and trying
- 0:44to make those people lose. Take them down as much as you
- 0:48can. It's like we said this is coming
- 0:51from it's like it's time from a strong place, a hard place for
- 0:56me. It's because you want to watch
- 1:03your mind. Those who hate you I hate and
- 1:10those who crawl and I'll fight with those who rise up against
- 1:15you. I hate them with the almost
- 1:17hatreds to be a man of talking. Imagine valia Amar carnor
- 1:21canetti canetti la Hashem. I have acted with a great level
- 1:28of zeal, fashion, Aquarino Llama Llama Zaha Babul Canton El
- 1:33Cabinet Leo Avi got great merits and great gifts because of his
- 1:39Kenalia Parshan Point B. And there's an area in the part
- 1:42of ourselves that has to say wake up, has to say I'm not
- 1:46standing for this anymore. I don't allow this, I don't
- 1:48accept it, It's not OK. All those areas, that is a part
- 1:52that has to be a part of us. And when someone says I'm a
- 1:55softy, I'm a nice guy and I'm good with things happening.
- 1:59If you're soft, it's beautiful. If you're a nice guy, it's
- 2:02wonderful. But a nice guy is supposed to be
- 2:05a person who's doing what's right.
- 2:07And normally you're nice because it's the right thing to be nice.
- 2:10And sometimes it's the right things to get upset.
- 2:14How often a life, few times in the entire life put this there.
- 2:18And I say this relates directly to the Hanukkah story is because
- 2:21as we said on Saturday night, it was a story of people or things
- 2:26were happening and no one was reacting.
- 2:28The laws were changing, the morality was changing, the rules
- 2:32is becoming less and less appropriate.
- 2:34And no one was saying a word until people said enough is
- 2:37enough. And they started to fight and
- 2:39started to react. And that was where the nice
- 2:42people, of course they were nice people could find beautiful,
- 2:45great people. Of course they were.
- 2:47But they felt it was time to say, I'm not going to accept
- 2:50this any longer. Now, how often does this happen?
- 2:52Our life? Not so often, but by your
- 2:55Shabbat table, this should be a few times that you say what's
- 2:58happening over there is not OK. I don't accept it.
- 3:01I'm not pro. I don't believe in what's
- 3:03happening in that area of the community or what's happening at
- 3:06that. Once in a while you should be
- 3:08up, you should be vocal and you should say it.
- 3:11And it would be a level of kana. Kana in the sense it's called
- 3:14jealousy. What it really means is you care
- 3:17about kavochem. I if you love a shem and you
- 3:21protect Hashem, I don't even protect Hashem.
- 3:23That means few and five cases, few and bond between you say
- 3:27that's not proper, what's happening, I'm not good with it.
- 3:30And it's a sign of your love, right?
- 3:32What you're doing is you're keeping in your mind, you're
- 3:37keeping tradition, tradition, you're keeping things the way
- 3:40they were. You're protecting God's honor.
- 3:43That's what you're doing when you do this.
- 3:46Our rabbis have spoken about this in a serious way, but I bet
- 3:52regarding a person, a person who has the ability to protest.
- 4:00A person has the ability to stop something and doesn't stop an
- 4:06inappropriate. If I have the capability to stop
- 4:12something bad from happening by talking about it, by telling
- 4:17someone off, by making a big deal about the need to be
- 4:21otherwise, being vague on purpose.
- 4:24If I have the ability to stop something and I don't.
- 4:28And how is concept is IA person who could have spoken up and
- 4:34didn't speak up? He gets the responsibility as if
- 4:38he himself was involved. So someone has to advice and you
- 4:41don't give him the right answer or if he knows.
- 4:43Something if someone says, yeah, should I go to this place?
- 4:48And you can easily say go, go there on vacation.
- 4:51Don't go there on vacation. And you decide to abstain.
- 4:53You don't understand anything. And they'll listen to you,
- 4:55right? You know, you could have stopped
- 4:58a major bizaion and a major hula sham and you didn't stop it.
- 5:03It's on, it's on us, right? And there's so many examples.
- 5:06It was a better good place or a bad.
- 5:08It would have been a bad place. And I could have just told the
- 5:10guy, listen, I don't think you should be going to your family's
- 5:12not on their level anymore. You shouldn't be going to your
- 5:14place. And I felt embarrassed to say
- 5:17anything. I let the guy go.
- 5:19He goes there. It's cool.
- 5:21Hashem. My fault.
- 5:23All right. But the initial ones.
- 5:25How are we doing? There you go.
- 5:26It's cool. Hashem S ID Exactly.
- 5:28Go for me. Joyce.
- 5:29Teach us that. When you criticize.
- 5:32Someone they hate the wrong way, always.
- 5:34Good. So we have criticism is not
- 5:39really doable today. It's no longer the age of
- 5:42Christian. There still is somehow a way to
- 5:46keep the world in check. You're right, takes a lot more
- 5:48dancing. It cannot be done with a broad
- 5:50stroke. Usually we do in a broad stroke.
- 5:53It usually ends up going backlashing.
- 5:55Either people tune out or people get upset.
- 5:58One or the other, few and far between is actually effective.
- 6:01I'm with you on that point. But there is an area where a
- 6:04person has to have values and things that he stands upon,
- 6:09things that he believes in. And these things should become
- 6:12what everyone knows is what he accepts.
- 6:15And, and it's a sign basically like this.
- 6:18Have you care about something, right.
- 6:20You care about your family, you can do whatever you can to
- 6:22protect them. You care about yourself.
- 6:25You can do whatever you can to defend yourself.
- 6:27You care about Hashem. Imagine Hashem is a member of
- 6:30your family and you'll do what you can to continue his cavort
- 6:34to make him feel good. And that makes sense.
- 6:37So you're going to figure out a way to allow for more coverage
- 6:40in the world and you're going to be upset about Gulashem.
- 6:42It's going to get you nervous, right?
- 6:44If you there's something that's happening, that's Gulashem,
- 6:47you're going to get angry. You hear about a party,
- 6:49community party, right? I get you nervous.
- 6:52There are those parties. You're going to say something.
- 6:54Who are you saying something? Maybe you just to your wife and
- 6:56your children. Maybe it's to your brother who
- 7:00you're saying something. And that is a reaction.
- 7:03That's a good reaction. It's a proper reaction.
- 7:05It's the right thing to do, they comment because by the way, that
- 7:09talk is the only thing that holds those things back from
- 7:12becoming full blown parties. If there's anything else, all
- 7:15right, that's it. Only the talk.
- 7:17The talk stops it from being accepted.
- 7:19And that is because you care. And the overall theme is, you
- 7:23know, by the time of the quantity and time of the of the
- 7:26Hanukkah story, Mila Shameelai, who wants to defend God's honor,
- 7:30right? That were people who said, I
- 7:33can't stand for this anymore. They could have accepted it.
- 7:36They could have let it go. They could have allowed to try
- 7:38to work around it and live around it.
- 7:41But that would have eventually eroded the entire Jewish way and
- 7:45said people decided it's immoral.
- 7:48It's not proper. I'm stopping this right a year
- 7:52right now and they got up to fight.
- 7:54Right now, these are people who are not really going to the
- 7:57sources equipped to fight. Yeah, people are not really.
- 8:00It's not the type to fight, right.
- 8:02They might be Quanine, whatever, strong side, but they don't have
- 8:05the ability to fight like that. So they got up.
- 8:09They fought because they felt there's no other choice.
- 8:12I need to make it say, you know, take a stand.
- 8:15And we as well have to take a stand.
- 8:17At its core, what this topic is telling us is you need to care
- 8:22about Kabocha mine. It should bother you when you
- 8:25hear about something inappropriate done by a famous
- 8:27person. It should get you nervous when
- 8:30you hear about the things that you see, things down in the
- 8:31street, if you turn you off, if you hear about the community
- 8:35accepting something that's wrong.
- 8:37All these realities need to become our reality.
- 8:39Why 'cause God's cavort is a cavort that I care about.
- 8:44Cavort shamayim is the number one thing.
- 8:47It should be the number one cavort that exists in our life
- 8:51is respecting Hashem's honor. In fact, one of the reasons that
- 8:54we're on this earth is to develop more Kabul Shamai.
- 8:58And that therefore in turn means that I should defend Kabul
- 9:02Shamai and I should not allow someone to say something.
- 9:06You buy a family meal and someone says you know so and so
- 9:09is a great guy. You don't speak Hashana, not
- 9:11ever, but that so and so did something.
- 9:15I and your kids are by the table and now your kids are listening
- 9:19here so and so because he's well off because he's a great guy.
- 9:22He's not a great guy and you know any kids who accept it
- 9:25right and say something, but they.
- 9:28Everyone does that all the time. We just talk about this couple
- 9:30weeks ago. You know, even the rabbis can
- 9:32have. Sadiq khadiq Sadiq and they
- 9:35don't pick. You know, and eventually, you
- 9:38know, it spots off as whatever, but it ends up resonating to
- 9:42people's heads that, you know, this is, this is the path we
- 9:46want to follow. So it's a very good 'cause it's
- 9:49very confusing, especially for the kids.
- 9:51Yeah, I agree. A lot of the young teenagers,
- 9:54even what they idolize today, the people who they idolize, I
- 10:00don't know. My grandfather would probably
- 10:01turn his. Stomach right, I know, I know we
- 10:03were told to some people who close him, he's not a good it's
- 10:07we were told us everybody don't get close to him.
- 10:09So also did this so also that I'm with you.
- 10:12And the reality is that all these things have gone away.
- 10:16Even though we noticed so much more today and even though we
- 10:19might be very judge mental society somehow, some way, we're
- 10:22also a very accepting society. It usually has to do with
- 10:25certain things that are very much blinding and get past the
- 10:29point. True.
- 10:30It also has to do with people are enamoured by certain people
- 10:34and therefore that blurs the line as well.
- 10:36There's a problems. I'm with you.
- 10:37It's a big problem and it, it, it, it shows its head.
- 10:41And our children are accepting certain people that we otherwise
- 10:43would say, you know, not keep away from them.
- 10:46So you have to care. And you have to somehow at the
- 10:50same time be a fine, nice person who knows about the graveness
- 10:55and the gravity of the Sahara, who understands if I hate X,
- 11:01then my children will hate Y. I'm aware of that.
- 11:03I'm afraid of that. So I'm not going to become a
- 11:05hater at all. But my children can get a sense
- 11:09of what I like, what I don't like, whom I accept or they all
- 11:13don't accept. I get a sense whom I accept or I
- 11:16don't accept certain people. And you build those people up,
- 11:19you don't build other people up. And it's a very significant
- 11:23reality. And at its core, Cavort Shamim
- 11:26is at stake. And we accept everything and
- 11:28everyone. And by the way, every time
- 11:32there's been a controversy in the community, in the Jewish
- 11:34world, but accepting an individual, it was always based
- 11:38on a do gooder, a wonderful, sweet, soft duker whose comment
- 11:45was Hazit. I feel so bad for them.
- 11:47I know they did that. I know they're like that.
- 11:50I know they live that lifestyle, but come on.
- 11:53Basically, it all comes from the soft, very soft spoken, except
- 11:58that nice liberal accepting stance.
- 12:01And at its core, it's hard, destructive, damaging, and can
- 12:06erode the entire fabric of a community of a Jewish world.
- 12:10If you accept, accept. Except every single time there's
- 12:13always been that nice sweet person who says come on, I feel
- 12:16so bad for them. Rabbi, you being too tough.
- 12:19I understand it's hard to have a stance, but if you don't have
- 12:23anything to stand on, If you don't have any values and just
- 12:27give away everything and just accept everything.
- 12:29I mean, if all you know it, say everything's OK.
- 12:32Smoking this, doing that, living that lifestyle, dressing like
- 12:35this way, talking that way, it's all good.
- 12:39Kumbaya, we love them all, it's all great.
- 12:42I'm with you. That should be your overall
- 12:43stance. In general, you have to have a
- 12:46structure, a fabric, blinds, borders, boundaries, things you
- 12:51believe in and therefore things you don't believe in.
- 12:54And if you accept it all, what you are also saying is you can
- 12:57care less of anything. That's the point.
- 12:59And when a person is saying when they accept all these
- 13:02lifestyles, I've got to make an easy one.
- 13:04You accept someone who's married to the wrong type and you accept
- 13:07them around, right? And you say OK with that because
- 13:11I'm a nice guy. I hate you being a nice guy and
- 13:13I feel very bad for someone to live in that lifestyle.
- 13:16I'm with you By the end of the day.
- 13:18It destroys the fabric of the community and it's goodbye.
- 13:21Good luck to all the sanctity of Hashem as it is.
- 13:24And what you were saying at your core is I like everyone by the
- 13:29table more than I like Kabul Shamaya.
- 13:32That's what you're saying. It's a battle not worth.
- 13:35Fighting. Or, you know, it's a battle.
- 13:36You don't have to. You don't have to get up there
- 13:38and start yelling from the rooftops, but you should make it
- 13:40very clear what you hold and make it very clear what's value.
- 13:45I understand. I've never want to be in that
- 13:47situation. So and so is related to someone
- 13:50in that predicament have to figure themselves out.
- 13:52They have the tiptoe and that they have to decide what's
- 13:55right, what's wrong, when to accept, when not to accept.
- 13:57All those things are correct. But cavort shamayim should be on
- 14:00the forefront #1 item and based on the Hanukkah story, what it
- 14:05took where a certain people have said I can't stand for this
- 14:10immorality any longer. I cannot imagine a law with
- 14:15Jewish brides have to be taken by the general the day of their
- 14:18wedding, one night with the general and then they go on.
- 14:23That's a crazy thing, right? Unbelievable morality and a
- 14:27crazy level of violation. And I can't accept that.
- 14:30Not because we care about our daughters, that's badly part of
- 14:34it, but also because look at the immorality they can live by,
- 14:37they can live with. The entire life will be changed
- 14:40because of that one night. I can't stand for that anymore.
- 14:43Or the all the different laws they were trying to get to take
- 14:46down our fabric. And we are facing in a certain
- 14:49sense in this day and age, a similar concept at all times.
- 14:54The fabric about of our community is being tested or we
- 14:58believe and don't we believe in is literally at stake.
- 15:01And you have to have a stance. You're not a tough guy.
- 15:04Don't become a tough guy, but have something you believe in.
- 15:07I always go back to my father who was by far nice person I
- 15:11knew, but at the same time he was the strongest in these areas
- 15:16and it got people nervous and at times we couldn't even fully
- 15:20understand why he took such a strong stance on these certain
- 15:23things. Which other rabbis caved on?
- 15:26Be honest, the other rabbis caved on.
- 15:28I thought it was very much old fashioned in these ways of
- 15:31having certain rules and would never cave and it took time for
- 15:34people to accept it. The people go OK with it was
- 15:36even involving very good people. But he had his stance and that
- 15:39was his stance and that was it. Why?
- 15:41Because cavochemayim, the fabric of our community, it is
- 15:45something that we care about. We don't want the community 10
- 15:47years from now to look different than it did 10 years ago.
- 15:51Everything is growing, Tadam. It's what all that's growing.
- 15:54You need to keep the original rules that's in intact,
- 15:58otherwise it could all be undone.
- 16:00Stop by this.