Now, of course to an authentic Jew, a proud Jew, such a thing is meshukatz; he looks down on such things. But once you waver in that foundation, in the truth of who you are, so anything is possible. Into the vacuum of the empty mind, whatever society tells you is good, and new and right, that’s what you’ll do.
How is it that a girl, a Jewish girl, is walking down the street well-undressed, she’s so proud. It’s a fact. She’s so proud, so conceited; she thinks that she is dressed in the most noble raiment. What is there in that? The answer is she’s imitating someone she’s impressed with and she thinks that this is the way, this is the right way; not the old archaic Jewish ways.
That’s what it was in the time of Chanukah. And so for the first time men appeared naked in public among Jews. Among Greeks it wasn't such a novelty, but the Misyavnim, they urged the Jewish youth to come out into the gymnasiums in public and perform. And there were some Jews among the Hellenizers who were ashamed to appear in public—because you could see they were Jews—so they had operations performed upon themselves that they shouldn't look like Jews anymore, that they shouldn't look like nimalim.
Yerushalayim New and Old
Not only exercise—they admired all of the Greek ways; Greek education, Greek art, and entertainment. They liked the Greek theaters. Jews never had theaters before and now the Misyavnim got busy introducing empty ideals into the bloodstream of our nation. They made theaters and they wanted to make hippodromes and introduce gentile amusements. The Misyavnim were profaning Yerushalayim with everything the Am Yisroel had always kept far away from.
The New York Times would have been proud! You know, when Teddy Kollek was defeated as mayor of Jerusalem, so the ones who sat shivah for him most were the New York Times. A long editorial, “Ay, ay, ay. What a tragedy!” They were so sad. They were praising Teddy Kollek, all the ‘good’ things he did for Yerushalayim. “When he was in power, it started becoming a modern city and today there’s even a little bit of nightlife already in Yerushalayim,” they said. You hear that praise on him? A little bit of nightlife also was beginning to develop in Yerushalayim!
And now, nebach, nebach, he was defeated. It was such a sad day for the New York Times. Nightlife! That’s what they want! Nightlife in the holy city of Yerushalayim.
That’s what the Misyavnim wanted for Yerushalayim too! The Greeks were all over the world now and they had all the modern advances, the sciences. They also had beautiful architecture. They made buildings that were a beauty to behold. Wherever you went, you could see the results of the great progress and therefore many fell victim to Greek culture. That’s what happened at the time. The Misyavnim looked up to the advancing Greeks and they started bringing foreign ideas into Eretz Yisroel.
Part III. Fighting the Culture
How’d it Happen?
And that’s one of the great lessons of Chanukah—it’s a hidden lesson—that the people who caused us the greatest trouble were not the Greeks but the Misyavnim; it was the Jews, Greek wannabes. It was the Jews who came into contact with the outside world and lost their heads.
And so the question we want to answer is why did they lose their heads? What made them so weak-minded?
So you’ll say it was the desire for money, maybe. I’m sure that it’s true. Or maybe power; the desire for power and kavod absolutely can make a person lose their head. But there’s something that comes before all of that. There’s something weak in the foundation and that’s the lack of pride in being a Yisroel. All this is the result of inferiority because they never learned to appreciate who they were, and if you don’t know who you are, you'll be a milquetoast—you’ll look up to and imitate the ways of the outside world.
The superior one never imitates an inferior one, you know. It’s only when you look up to someone, that you imitate him. If you look down on him, so what’s there to imitate? And that’s been one of our great problems in history. And now more than ever, even the bnei Torah, the really good Jews, have to know that we are the victims of this attitude also. It has permeated into us, it has seeped into our bones. We don’t have that pride anywhere near what is expected of a Jew, of the most simple and plain Jew.
Hiding the Crown
Here’s a man, one of the top men in the Syrian community and he had to visit me in my home for a certain reason. This was some time ago. He wanted to invite me to speak at his synagogue. So I knew he was coming and I looked through the window. He was there. He got out of his car and he put a yarmulke on his head and walked up to my door. Why? Why just when he walked into my house? Because he was trained to be ashamed of a yarmulke. He wouldn’t walk with a yarmulke in the street. Because then he won’t look like his fellow Irishman.
Now to be so ingrained in self shame is a tragedy of tragedies! Because a yarmulke is just the opposite! It’s a crown of glory! You know we make a bracha every morning on a yarmulke and on a hat. The bracha is ה׳ הָּ ַ̇‡ ¿ךּרוָּב – we thank You, הָרָ‡¿פƒ ̇¿ּב ל≈‡ָר¿ׂ̆ƒי ר≈טֹעו – You crown Your people Yisroel with glory. It’s not on tefillin; it’s your hat. A hat or a beanie, whatever it is you wear on your head, a stovepipe, anything you put on your head, a tarbush, anything you wear on your head, if you do it because you’re a Jew, then it’s a crown of glory! That’s the bracha we make on it every morning.
To be ashamed of a crown?! Suppose a king gives you a badge. You’re ashamed of the badge; instead of pinning it on your coat where everyone can see, you’ll pin it on your underwear?
It’s a good idea to practice that by the way. Don’t put on your hat or your yarmulke in the morning like you’re still in the drunken stupor of your sleep. Remind yourself! It’s a crown of glory! And once in a while remind yourself during the day; it will be like vitamins. It will fortify you with pride.
Mitzvos Tzrichos Kavana
And every mitzvah is like that. Besides for the intention of that specific mitzvah, there’s a general and more important kavanah—Vitzivanu! I’m so privileged to be commanded, to be chosen by the King of kings!
It’s an opportunity to feel proud. You are privileged by the mitzvos. But not like the modern orthodox rabbi in the synagogue who speaks from the pulpit and says, “You’re privileged to do mitzvos,” but he doesn’t even know what it means. A mitzvah is a sign of royalty! And not royalty in the sense of the king of this country, that country. It’s the only true royalty there is.
And therefore, when a king goes out in the street wearing all of his badges, does it occur to him to be embarrassed, to imitate the ways of the lower element? Never. His confidence and superiority, his aristocracy, is so great it’s as if suppose let’s say a king is taking a walk from Windsor Palace. And as he is walking, a ragged urchin, a cockney kid came along and said, “Hey you bum, what are you doing on the street?” the king wouldn’t even notice it. He’s a king! And this is a nobody! And therefore, the Torah Jew who knows his worth is not influenced.
Cringing Before the Evolutionist
How is it that a Jewish boy or a Jewish girl is impressed with the theory of evolution? The truth is that judged on its own merits it’s as childish a doctrine as anyone could ever imagine. But people are so deflated before the imaginary superiority of the academicians and by their own feeling of inferiority, that it seems to them sacrilegious to question the great body of academicians. Look, if so many educated people believe in evolution, so even if I won’t but still I feel it’s very difficult.
The truth is that an ancient Jew, let’s say a Jew came from Meah Shearim who never went to college, never read the Sunday newspapers, never listened to the radio, so his store of dignity, his Torah confidence, the knowledge of what a Jew is, his superiority, wouldn’t make him yield to the fact that here is a well-dressed professor who is saying something. He’s not impressed in the least bit because he knows that the truth is in the repository of the Torah where all the truths are. If this professor would meet him on the street and say, “You know, your ancestor was a protozoan, a tiny little insect wiggling its way through the mud,” so he’d quickly run away from that man because he’d think he escaped from an asylum.
Now I’m not even talking about the arguments. The truth is, the arguments of the evolutionists in themselves are nothing and nothing and nothing. And I’ll be glad to speak to you about this; not in one lecture—many lectures. But the fact that even one lecture is necessary is due only to the feeling of inferiority among us. All the wickedness of the gentiles has made inroads in the Jewish people solely due to the fact that the Jews have lost this pride.
Ashamed Rabbis
How is it that Jews look like gentiles? It’s because they look up to them. They admire them. How is it that Jews, even rabbis, take gentile names? Rabbi Louis, Rabbi Charles, Rabbi Howard, Rabbi Albert, Rabbi Alfred. A rabbi should take pride in a gentile name?!
Now, the last name is not so easy to change, but the first name you can change; your first name is your choice. Who cares what your parents called you? So if you're a Norman, forget it. What’s wrong with Nachman? With Nosson? Give yourself a new name and use that name with pride.
The answer is they have no pride as Jews. They think it’s an honor to have the name of some Scotch drunkard, or of some Irish wife beater. To them, that enhances their personality. If he’ll have the name of a goy and talk like a goy and dress like a goy and look like a goy, that’s his achievement.
And so all the troubles come from this. The Jew who thinks that by having a haircut like a goy or wearing Reeboks like a goy or wearing pants like a goy, whatever it is, that he’s doing something that makes us better. That’s the beginning of the end because the Jew who never learned the greatness of who he is, a Yisroel, then it’s easy to take him and to make him into an American street bum.
The Fragrance of the Theatre
And therefore, when I pass by a movie and I see a big line waiting to be admitted to the place of morass and they want to pay for it too, I see one or two yarmulkes. I say, “What’s this? How could they stoop so low?”
So once I stopped a man with a black hat. I said, “Why are you standing in line? A Jew with a hat of glory should want to go into a place like that?!”
“First of all,” he said to me, “I’m not going in there. And anyways I’m not a Jew. I’m a Turk”
“Oh!” I said, “You’re a smart Turk.”
Now, why he wasn’t going in I don’t know. But a Jew who has an awareness of his aristocracy, it’s beneath his dignity to enter such a place. A place of mishugoyim! Sitting and watching somebody else’s imagination. And paying for it? Fools!
And so, when a man learns the attitude of aristocracy, he looks down on these things. It’s beneath him; it becomes ma’us to him to walk in the ways of the gentiles. He despises these things! A proud Jew passes by a movie theatre and he thinks it’s a latrine and it has a terrible odor coming out of it. Did you ever pass by an old time beis hakisah? Not in America; I’m talking about an old time European beis hakisah. The fragrance, you could feel a block away. A ben Yisroel, someone who constantly has before him the awareness of diyukno shel aviv, the knowledge that he has a glorious past and a glorious future, so that’s how he feels when he walks by these places. It’s tzoah; it’s ugly and nauseating, that’s what he thinks about these places.
The New Old Yetzer
Now, it’s a big job, a lifetime job. And it’s in every generation. Every generation says, “This is a new people. We know it’s a new kind of a nation. It’s all brand new – we never had this before. It’s a wonderful people now.” Every time the same old yetzer hara comes in a new form. The Greeks. The Spaniards. The French. The Germans. The Americans. We make the same error over and over again.
And therefore in order to combat the yetzer hara that caused the trouble of Chanukah and that still causes trouble today, we have to continually keep in mind this great principle that Hakadosh Baruch Hu expects that at all times, to remember that he chose us and forever and ever we have to walk with our heads high and the pride that Hakadosh Baruch Hu bestowed on us. A Jew has to have in mind a great deal of meditation, radial reflection. We must constantly be aware of the greatness of our history.
Misyavnim Go Lost, Chashmonaim Live Forever
Now that’s a very important lesson we have to learn because if we had learned that previously, a great many people would have survived. Otherwise, they got lost. They got lost. The Misyavnim became Tzedukim. They all became Tzedukim. And the Tzedukim all went lost. I read in a gentile book – a gentile said this. At the churban Bayis Sheini, he said, the Tzedukim all went lost. We never heard about them anymore. They got lost.
But ם∆יכ≈ ֹ̃לו¡‡ 'הַּב יםƒ ̃≈ב¿ּ„ַה ם∆ּ ַ̇‡¿ו – you who are loyal to Hashem, םֹוּיַה ם∆כ¿ּלּוּכ יםƒּיַח – you’ll remain forever and ever. If you’re proud, you’ll be loyal. And so that’s our job. To regain the ancient pride of the Jewish people. Ahh! To know with a full conviction that we are on the right side of history, that the ways of living are found only in our seforim. To have good Jewish pride means a strong but quiet confidence, a firm inner certainty in what it means to be a ben or bas Yisroel.
And when a person gains that pride of knowing what it means to be a Yisroel, so such a Jew will never fall prey to the silly theories of the gentiles, to doctrines and to fads and styles. And that’s why when we want to leave Chanukah with something tangible, something we can hold onto all year long, we should remember that one of the lessons of Chanukah is recognizing the genuine pride of our real worth. We should always see before our eyes what Yosef always kept before his eyes—the diyukno shel aviv, the image of Yisroel Saba. Because when you know who you come from and who you are, you’re going to live successfully.
Have a Wonderful Shabbos
