Chillul Hashem

The proud father stood before his ten children looking into their eyes one by one. He gave them to understand in a low and serious voice the importance of preserving the honor of their family. He expected them to behave like model citizens and to make sure that the family name is not shamed.
The boys filed out of the room deeply impressed and determined to carry out their fathers wish.
However, their determination did not last very long. A few weeks later one of the boys was caught stealing and was arrested while the other brothers stood around wringing their hands and moaning, "oh what have you done to our father's honor? How could you shame us like this?"
A week after that saw one of the boys get drunk and beat a cop over the head with a baseball bat. Once again the other brothers, were hissing and murmuring, "oh no..what have you done to our fathers honor!"
Then, a month after that, one of the brothers decided to start wearing a clown costume, red nose curly hair and all, all over town. He wore it to work and out on the street. And the other brothers were overcome with shame, "Oh how could you walk around like that, you're shaming our fathers name??"
Some of the brothers even made websites and forums with much digital hand wringing, discussing whether or not this behavior is considered shaming their fathers name, and how it compares to the other preceding occurrences.

Then a month later the first brother was arrested again for stealing. This brought much consternation from the other brothers. They even organized a protest outside his home holding crudely drawn signs denouncing their wayward brother. This odd group of shouting signholders, clown and all were chanting in unison "Daddys Honor - Daddys Honor" and were drawing a crowd of curious onlookers.

In the meantime the father was somewhere looking down and shaking his head at his silly children, as if to say, "Do you think this is what I intended with my speech?"
"I never meant for you to be caught up in, and obsessed with not shaming my name day and night! You're all kind of missing the point. Just act normal and behave because that's how decent normal human beings ought to behave, then my name will automatically be honored. "




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