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The Cover Up Is A Worse Chillul Hashem Than The Crime

The Cover Up Is A Worse Chillul Hashem Than The Crime

Recently, in a school in Israel, a child was hit by a rebbe for “misbehaving.” According Kikar Shabbos News, this older teacher struck the student quite hard and has a history of similar acts of violence against children. The boys’ parents called the police and a complaint was filed against the teacher.

It was an awful event, but the parents heeded the Torah commandments of al sa’amod al dam reyecha (don’t stand idly by your neighbor’s blood) as well as tzedek tzedek tirdof (righteousness, righteousness, you shall pursue). They took a negative situation and acted in accordance with Jewish law, in order to right a wrong.

But then things took a turn for the worse. A number of rabbis intervened, reached out to the parents who had reported the teacher, and pressured them to drop the charge (which they agreed to). The rabbis’ reasoning? A rebbe in trouble with the law is a chillul Hashem – a negative mitzvah which comes from the Torah verse, “You shall not desecrate My holy Name.”

Now on one hand, those rabbis are correct. A rebbe who does something bad does desecrate God’s holy Name. How could a teacher of Torah have done something so awful to a child? Nevertheless, it is twisted thinking and a corruption of Judaism to believe that covering up a chillul Hashem removes the chillul Hashem. All it does is multiply it, as suddenly more rabbis are involved in preventing justice from taking place and protecting the innocent.

There is a famous idea that when Adam ate from the Tree of Knowledge, though he had made a mistake, he wasn’t in too much trouble at first. God confronts him and asks what he has done. At that moment he could have fessed up, come clean, begged for forgiveness, and world history would have been forever altered for the good. A negative could have turned positive. But instead, Adam shirked responsibility and passed the buck to Eve, and then the punishments and curses began.

So too, when a crime or misdeed occurs, that is only the first part of the problem. If it is dealt with justly and swiftly a chillul Hashem can lead to a kiddush Hashem – a sanctification of God’s holy Name. What could be holier than people caring for innocents and making sure the guilty are punished accordingly.

May we merit to have our nation avoid the behavior that causes chillul Hashem in the first place. But if negative and harmful events do occur, may we have the clarity and strength to deal with those situations justly and righteously.

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Allison Josephs

Allison Josephs is the founder and executive director of Jew in the City has been involved in the field of Jewish Outreach for over twenty years and is the Partner in Torah mentor to actress Mayim Bialik. She was named one of NJOP’s Top Ten Jewish Influencers and one of the Jewish Week’s 36 under 36. Allison has been quoted or written about in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, People Magazine, NYPost, Daily News, TMZ, The Daily Beast, and Hollywood Reporter. She has appeared on numerous television and radio networks including CBS, ABC, Fox5, TLC, Associate Press TV, and NPR; her articles have appeared in publications including The Washington Post, JTA, Jewish Week, Jerusalem Post, The Forward, and Kveller. Pearson Education, the largest textbook company in the world, produced a video segment on Allison’s life for the Judaism chapter of their textbook. She is a sought-after international lecturer whose corporate clients include Con-Edison and NYU Langone and hosts a weekly podcast on the Nachum Segal Network. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University in Philosophy and lives with her husband and four children minutes from the George Washington Bridge.