There's a certain mitzvah (commandment) that we need to understand. There's something called Kiddush Hashem (bringing glory to Hashem), like when we mekadesh shem shamayim, and Chillul Hashem, when we desecrate Hashem's honor. Kiddush Hashem, we could say, has many explanations. But one thing is that other people learn from your ways. When you do things and others learn from your ways, wow, this is a great Kiddush Hashem.
For example, let's say a woman becomes tzniut (modesty). She says, "Wow, if she can be tzniut, then I for sure can be tzniut." And she becomes tzniut. Wow, so you mekadesh shem shamayim—you elevated Hashem's name by being good, and another person learns from you.
I'll never forget when I was a young boy. I was with a few friends. You know how some things at 7-Eleven aren't kosher (fit for Jewish dietary law)—this candy, that candy. I'll never forget: a few of the guys went, and one of them said to another, "Oh, Kai just bought this. Here, it's an extra candy bar." It wasn't kosher. He gave it to him, and I was there witnessing the story. The other boy said, "Thank you, but no thank you." He said, "What do you mean, thank you, but no thank you? You don't want it? Candy—who refuses candy?" The boy said, "No, you're not understanding. I only eat kosher." A few weeks later, I was with this other friend, and he said, "I started keeping kosher." I said, "Why? Why is that? What happened all of a sudden? What's going on?" He said, "If so-and-so can do it, I can do it." Yeah, he was mekadesh shem shamayim without even knowing that he was mekadesh shem shamayim. He helped others; he caused others to make Hashem's honor great.
What's Kiddush Hashem? There are many explanations, again. Let's say, for a simple person, if he dies in the army because he's a Jew, that's mekadesh shem shamayim. Yes. But mekadesh shem shamayim is also bringing glory to Hashem. Bringing glory to Him is the biggest thing we need to do in our lives: bringing honor to HaKadosh Baruch Hu.
I'll never forget. I might have said this, but it's amazing. I remember when we opened this Beit Midrash (study hall). We were speaking to somebody, and he said, "We need another Beit Midrash." He meant that there was one farther out, about five blocks away, even though this place is needed. Five blocks that way, eight blocks that way. Another one? Let them walk five blocks; let them walk eight blocks. But I told him, "How do you know Starbucks is successful? How do you know? Maybe they're not successful. How do you know?" When you see them on every corner, every other corner, within an eight-block radius—you know, every eight blocks—they have a whole situation. Starbucks every eight blocks, every 15 blocks, every 20. Five blocks—you see them, boom, boom, boom. You can't go without a Starbucks. Now, I think they broke the deal with Target, by the way, because every time you walk into a Target, there's always a Starbucks in the store. You know what I'm talking about? I don't know. Have you ever walked into Target? There's always a Starbucks in Target. It must be—they made it, they broke the deal—but Starbucks is everywhere, Starbucks is everywhere. Wow, wow. Another success, another success, another success. They're not going to open if it's not a success.
Same thing I told them: "Look, there's another Beit Midrash, another makom (place) where a person can learn Torah. Shouldn't he be happy? Yeah. Should he be happy with that? Shouldn't he be thrilled?" That's what I told them. A guy drives down the block: "What is this? Another Beit Midrash?" Yes, another Beit Midrash. "Wow. Hashem is booming." You understand? The Torah is booming. This is, in a way, Kiddush Shem Shamayim (bringing glory to Hashem). Kiddush Shem Shamayim. Every other person who gets religious—and everybody, this is something you have to understand: your deeds, the things you do, people automatically look at them. Even though you might say, "Oh, who's watching me? Who's looking at me?" people look at you. People look at you. Like the lady says, "If she can be tzniut, I can be tzniut." If he can keep kosher, I can keep kosher. You understand what I'm trying to say? It's very important that you understand this concept. Our main goal in life is to make Kiddush Shem Shamayim. That's our main goal: to give honor to Hashem. That is the main goal in our lifetime. What is it? What else is there? To accumulate what? To accumulate? To accumulate? Kavod (honor to HaKadosh Baruch Hu). This is it.
Look at TorahAnytime, for example. Look how many speakers there are. You know, like Torah, all the other websites that are out there. There's always, you know, a million things, a million Rabbis. Baruch Hashem, Torah is being spread around the world. It's mekadesh shem shamayim, just like that, mekadesh shem shamayim. That's the Kiddush Hashem right there. Wow. You go on and see speakers. All the Rabbis. Rabbi, Rabbi, Rabbi, Rabbi. Wow, this is amazing. So many Rabbis. How many Rabbis in the world? This is mekadesh shem shamayim.
There's another aspect, though, called Chillul Hashem. Chillul Hashem is the opposite: when you're doing something wrong and people are learning from you. This is a Rashi. In one of the Gemarot—I forgot where it was, but I remember one of the Gemarot explained: what's Chillul Hashem? One of the very, very severe forms of Chillul Hashem is when you do something wrong and people are learning from you. That's the biggest mekadesh shem shamayim. And he says about this, it's chamur (severe) from every aveirah (transgression) shebaTorah (in the Torah), like it says in Gemara Yoma, chas veshalom. It's like the worst. So you have to be very, very careful, chas veshalom, that people—if your husband is doing something wrong, make sure: people can learn from you, this, that, that. How important it is that you conduct yourself in the right way. And when you do conduct yourself in the right way, people will automatically learn. It becomes a trend, you know? Even though it shouldn't be like that, it becomes a trend.
For example, all of a sudden, you have a group of guys learning. How does it grow? One group of guys learns, then all of a sudden he tells his friends, "By the way, what are you doing tonight?" "Oh, I'm learning." "Learning? What are you learning? Come!" He comes in. All of a sudden, he starts learning. Then another two guys start learning. Then before you know it, a hundred, a hundred people learn. Then another two guys start learning. Then before you know it, a hundred, a hundred people learn. Then another two guys start learning. After a while, one group sat down and said, "Let's learn." That's how everything starts, by the way. Every organization—what do you think? Take the biggest yeshiva in the world. Take the biggest yeshiva in the world. How do you think it started? What's the biggest yeshiva in the world? Mir Yeshiva in Yerushalayim, Lakewood in—what's it called?—Lakewood Yeshiva, BMG. How do you think Lakewood started? Do you think it started with 5000 people? 8000 people? Lakewood didn't start with 8000 people. How did it start? He got 30, 40, 50, 100, 200, and then after that, it just—you understand? So it always starts with those scores, and that's why it says how important it is to be the first 10 to minyan (quorum of ten). Because when you're the first 10 to minyan, you get rewarded for the whole minyan because of you. You were here. Since you were here, you had the minyan, you started the minyan, you started the minyan; everybody else comes, joins, joins, joins, joins, joins. You get more schar (reward) than everybody else in that room because you were the first 10 who inaugurated it, who started the minyan. Even though every day there's a minyan, let's say at 7.45 in the morning, 8 o'clock in the morning, you were the first 10. You get rewarded more than anybody else coming the 12th, the 13th, the 14th, the 15th, 16th, 17th. No. You know why? Because you started. You started. And that's what I'm trying to say. It's so vital. These things, you don't realize when you do good, you don't know what impact it has on other people. Sometimes you'll never know. Sometimes you'll never know. You don't know the impact you have on others. This guy's getting religious? Wow. I'm gonna get religious. And the guy comes to you, "Why'd you get religious?" "I got religious because I saw you getting religious." "Me?" "Yeah." He said, "If you could do it, I could do it." This is a great lesson that we have to know in mekadesh shem shamayim.