how to be a light unto the nations - rabbi miller

If Jews are meant to live in an intellectual ghetto by the Torah, then how can we fulfill the commandment to be a light unto the nations?

And Yeshayahu Hanovi said that, "You'll be a light unto the nations."

And the answer is, you don't make a light by putting out the light. It's only when the Jew is a light wherever he is, that the nations are illuminated. An intellectual ghetto, you have to know, doesn't mean that the world has no contact with you. You live according to your ideals.

But when the world would see a holy nation that practices chastity, decency… Let's say, suppose all of Brooklyn, wherever Jews live, they didn't have one television set. Imagine that. So the goyim traveling through marvel. It's like in Williamsburg. There are blocks and blocks. You can't see any aerials on top.

Suppose that was the case all over where Jews live. But the people who sell goods want Jews for customers too. So they'd find ways and means of placating the Jews. So they would change the television. Whether Jews would use television eventually, I don't know. But suppose television knew that you couldn't get to these six million customers, how many there are, unless you have decent programs?

You understand what impact that would have?

I'll tell you something more. The people who run the television shows are Jews. And they're the ones that are poisoning the American public. They're the ones who are stubborn and insist on filth.

Suppose they were a mamleches kohanim v'goy kodosh. What effect would it have? Hollywood is largely a Jewish industry. Suppose the Jews in Hollywood decided they want to be a mamleches kohanim, and pictures started coming out of Hollywood. In the olden days, it was possible to have moral pictures, and they wouldn't have changed.

And so the Jew could be a light for their nations because when it comes to business, he doesn't live in a ghetto. To money making, he has to have contact with the world. And so the Jew would have a tremendous influence.

Recently, when a number of chasidim came and protested in City Hall against gay rights, it electrified them. It was a wonderful credit to the Jewish community in Williamsburg. If Orthodox Jews would demonstrate that they are an Am Hashem, a goy kodosh, certainly there would be a lot of goyim that would be happy to join and help out in the fight.

But the goyim don't see that. All they see is when there's a demonstration for abortion in Los Angeles. So a certain congressman looked out of the window and said, "All I see is Jews." He was censured for that. But there's a truth.

The Jews have gone mad, gone wild for wickedness. If the Jewish people were an am kadosh and lived in an intellectual ghetto, it would be a different world entirely.

How did we get the Tanach to the world? By being like the world? No. By being what we were supposed to be. That's how the world gained our Bible. Not by becoming immoral hedonists did the world admire us.

It's only if you have a nation that's a mamleches kohanim v'goy kodosh, then you'll be an ohr la'goyim. Then you'll be a light to the nation.(June 1982)

#766 Parshas Behar Bechukosai 5785