Grabbing the Ears
Of course, when we see an issue that involves morality, we should always vote. It’s a mitzvah. You have to know that Hakadosh Baruch Hu expects Jews to participate in improving the moral environment. If your vote can help out, it’s your job to vote for morality.
Not only voting. A quarrel that’s for Hakadosh Baruch Hu, that’s something else. That’s what I said in the very beginning of this talk. If you see wrongdoers, you must take some action.
Everybody here remembers the ads for the suntan lotion Tanya, those wicked pictures on the buses. So I wrote letters. I wrote letters to the mayor. I wrote letters to the transit authorities. They said it’s none of their business, that it belongs to the advertising company.
So I began writing letters to the advertising company. Finally the president himself answered me. He said that my letter was ‘interesting’ but there’s nothing wrong with the advertisement because the same thing is on the beaches.
Grabbing the Marketers
So I wrote to him, “What’s on the beaches can’t be on the public buses.” And I said that it must be removed. This time he didn’t answer and the ads continued until the end of the summer.
Next summer came around, again the ads showed up. But this time we took action. We mimeographed a lot of letters and we sent them out to people – and also to the advertising people – saying, “We urge you to mimeograph this letter, to reproduce it and send it in the thousands to every congregation in the country urging everyone to patronize only Coppertone because of their decent advertising.”
A couple of weeks later, the Tanya pictures were off the bus in the middle of the summer. Now I don’t know what happened. Maybe there were other reasons, but it was off the bus.
So somebody will say, “Is that your business, Rabbi Miller? You have to stick your nose in advertising? What the goyim do is none of your business.”
No; sometimes you have to be involved. When it’s Hashem’s fight we have to be involved; certainly. And therefore if you can help out in the great battle against immorality, against any form of wickedness, then you surely are oveid Hashem by doing it. We have to speak up.
Nothing Else Matters
But not in a ֹלו ‡ֹל יבƒר, in things that are none of your business. What’s none of your business? All the things that are not related to avodas Hashem are none of your business. Jews don’t get involved in America’s business. In politics per se we have no interest. What’s our business all of their problems? We have our own, more important business, to deal with. We’re here for avodas Hashem and nothing else.
And this brings us to the next meaning of Shlomo’s mashal; actually I intended this to be our subject for tonight because it’s the entire subject of our lives but we have no time left so we’ll say it quickly and we’ll come back to it in the future, bli neder. It’s another layer of this possuk but it’s probably the most important one: ב∆לָכ י≈נ¿זָ‡¿ּב ̃יƒזֲחַמ – Who else can we say about him that he’s taking hold of the ears of a dog? ר≈בֹע – If you are a passerby in this world, ֹלו ‡ֹּל יבƒר לַﬠ ר≈ּבַﬠ¿ ̇מ – and you become embroiled in a world that’s not your business.
Do you know who the ר≈בֹע, the passerby, is? Me, you, everyone. And who is the dog, the dangerous dog, that we’ll be stuck with? Olam Hazeh. We’re only passing through this world – if it’s eighty years or a hundred and twenty years, whatever it is, we’re only passersby – and yet we’re grabbing onto the ears of this world with two hands. And some of us are holding on very tightly! They’re involved!
We Fools Are Involved
The Jew today – it doesn’t matter if he’s a Jew in America or Australia or Meah Shearim – is too involved in things that don’t involve him. The Jew has grabbed onto the ears of Olam Hazeh. You’ll have to excuse me for saying it – I don’t like stepping on your toes – but I know that right here in this room, among my people, there are fools who read the newspapers and listen to the radio. They read magazines and the advertisements and they’re involved in Olam Hazeh like nobody’s business.
What do they think about? What do they talk about? Politics, shopping, travel, other narishkeit. The frum Jews today have grabbed onto the ears of Olam Hazeh. They don’t understand that they’re only passing by in this world and that most of the things they get involved in are not important at all.
A Jew is involved in nothing except avodas Hashem. We have to sit and learn Torah and make a living; we have to raise our children to Torah and yiras Shamayim. We have to be busy with good deeds and kindness and davening and strengthening the Am Yisroel. That’s more than enough. There’s nothing in this world that’s your business except for avodas Hashem; Torah, mitzvos, chessed, mussar. And if you want to be successful in that most important business, then you must remain un-entangled from this world.
Stay Out Of It
There used to be a saying, on the side of the buses they had a saying, ‘Get involved.’ But our motto is: ‘Don’t get involved – stay out of it!” It’s a very busy world and it’s calling to us but Mishlei is telling us that when we become unnecessarily embroiled with the things of this world then we have seized the ears of a dog that we cannot let go of. We must have many things in our mind; but whatever is superfluous should be excluded from the mind because there is just not enough place for it. And once a man is concerned about something in this world it’s ב∆לָכ י≈נ¿זָ‡¿ּב ̃יƒזֲחַמ; he’s seizing the ears of a dog. This world is a dog. It’s a dog with teeth and if you seize the ears, you’ll find it’s hard to let go.
Of course, you have to make a living and get along with everyone and live normal lives in this world. But you don’t have to grab; you don’t have to get entangled. You know when you discover that it’s nothing at all? When you get old then you start looking through a clear window pane. When you’re young you look through a colored window pane – all the various hues give everything a colorful look. But after you pass a certain age, then you start looking through a clear window pane and you see that all those visions were nothing.
But the wisest of all men doesn’t want us to wait for old age; it’s too late then – it’s never too late but it’s very late. And that’s why he wrote this possuk. Many lessons he wants us to learn. Don’t get involved in arguments where you don’t belong. Don’t get involved in places where you’re not needed. But most of all – and really everything is included in this one – don’t grab onto the ears of Olam Hazeh.
Have A Wonderful Shabbos
