My friends, I have a question for you. This is a question for all the parents out there, all the teachers out there, and all the people in the synagogue. Understand what we're learning today: whatever level you're on, expecting other people to be at your level is immature. To expect a child to act with maturity, with wisdom, with foresight—how many times do parents say to kids, “Why don't you think this through?” “Because I'm a kid. It says it right in my job description. My job is to drive you crazy. Your job is to embarrass me in public—not by, you know, just by being you, Dad.”
It's immature to think anything else of it. How many times does a Rebbe (teacher) hold students to impossible levels? Absolute silence for five hours straight. That's not a child. You want absolute silence for five hours straight while teaching? Get yourself a pet rock. You want children to come to shul, but then you want those children to be absolutely silent. What are we getting? Mouth tape.
This is children. You have a Beit Knesset (synagogue). There are 12 people in it. You want more people to come to the Beit Knesset, so you're going to cast your net wider, and people who are not of your type and are not on your level are going to be coming to the Beit Knesset. Why are you getting so angry that someone's phone went off? You're bringing people in. They're learning.
I like to ask this to people sometimes: You're so angry at this guy because he's in shul and he isn't a Shomer Shabbat who keeps Shabbat perfectly. What would have happened if, in Shaare Zion, Hacham Yaakov Kassin had said to your grandfather, “Don't come to shul because you don't keep Shabbat perfectly”? You would not be in shul. So why are we begrudging people who are at the beginning of their journey, the journey that we had? So it's good to chart the path to perfection for people, but expecting them to already be on a path that took you and others a very long time to get to...