Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Daily Advice with Zad Hashem. My friends, today I chose the following topic. The verse says, “Those who honor Me, I will honor, and those who disdain Me will be disgraced.”
Everyone wants honor. People seek it wherever they can. It is very difficult for a person to completely reject honor. A person naturally wants acknowledgment and attention; he wants others to honor him and give him recognition. But what does the verse mean when it says, “Those who honor Me, I will honor”? The Borei Olam is saying: “I will give honor to those who give Me honor. You do not have to chase honor.”
Sometimes, however, we contradict this. We violate principles for the sake of our own honor. We establish a precedent in which we prioritize our own honor over the honor of Hashem.
Let me give an example. One of the greatest sins, the Shulchan Aruch writes, is speaking during the repetition of the Amidah. A person speaks while the cantor is reciting the repetition. The Rabbi writes that eating non-kosher food is not as severe as speaking during the repetition of the Amidah. It is an astonishing idea.
A person would be better off staying home, not going to synagogue, and not answering Kedushah, than coming to synagogue and speaking while the cantor is reciting the repetition. Why? Because doing so negates the honor of Heaven. The cantor is saying, “Blessed are You,” while the other person is talking. What is he effectively saying? “My honor is more important.”
No one does this deliberately. No one is sitting there saying, “Let me denigrate Hashem, God forbid.” But a person’s pursuit of self-honor and self-respect can be so strong that he ignores the honor of Heaven.
The same is true when a person speaks while Kaddish is being recited. What does it mean when someone talks at that moment? It means that, in practice, he is saying, “My honor is stronger or more important to me than the honor of Heaven.”
One idea of repentance is so powerful and so great that it can remove a tremendous weight from the scale of a person’s sins: a person can decide, “I am concerned with the honor of Heaven. I will no longer speak during the repetition of the Amidah. I will no longer speak during Kaddish. I will be conscious that when I enter the synagogue, I am entering the palace of Hashem.” That is honoring Hashem.
Again, no one is doing this intentionally. No one is saying, “Let me embarrass Hashem or denigrate Him.” These are good, wonderful people. But somewhere in the back of a person’s mind, this is what is happening: he is prioritizing his own honor.
If we are truly great, let us begin thinking about the honor of Hashem. What comes first when it comes to the honor of the Creator? How do I place it at the forefront of my mind, at the forefront of my life, and at the forefront of my awareness? How does it affect the way I dress my children and the way I speak about other people? Is the honor of the Borei Olam my priority?
If it is, Hashem says, “You give Me honor, and I will make sure that you receive honor in the future.” You will have that respect. That is what I want to believe in: honor. Amen.