Holy Chutzpah

Note: “Chutzpah” is Hebrew for “brazenness” or “audacity.” 

“And Joseph instructed the children of Israel to swear, saying, "God will surely remember you, and you shall take up my bones out of here." (Genesis/Bereishit, 50:25)  

We live in a time in history when people are losing their connection to religion that they used to have in the past. This causes that most of the democratically elected leaders insult religion, and look askance upon synagogues and Jewish schools as unessential businesses with no purpose, while they give importance to other things that really are unessential.  

Concerning such a time in history, a quote is brought in the name of my holy ancestor Rebbe Yehudah Tzvi of Rozla zy”a the author of Daat Kedoshim, who said on the verse "charm is a lie and beauty is vain but a woman who fears the Lord she will be praised" (Proverbs/Mishlei 31:30), that there would be a time before the coming of the Mashiach when the verse will be explained like this: "lies will be considered charming, and vanity will be considered beautiful, but only a woman who fears the Lord will be seen as an object of derision" because the word "tishallel" is related to the word "hollelus" which means mockery, meaning that the world will mock those who fear Hashem.  

However the tzaddikim have taught that in such a time of temptation before the coming of Moshiach, special energy will come down from heaven to every Jew who wants to choose the proper path in order to stand up against the influence of the street.  

Chazal said that “in the time before Mashiach comes chutzpah will be rampant”. The holy Gerrer rebbe the Chiddushei HaRim zt”l explained, that this means that the power of chutzpah will increase, whether it is used for evil or whether it is used for good. Thus, just as a person could easily come into an evil form of audacity, so too we could easily come into a good form of chutzpah to perform the commandments of God with holy Pride. This is because God does not bring a test without giving the possibility to stand up against the test – because God made everything measure for measure.  

Along these lines, Rabbi Mordechai Letnir of Drohobych zt”l said, that this is what was written in the Mishnah in the end of tractate Sotah, that before the coming from Moshiach “a son will insult his father, and a son will not be embarrassed in front of his father”. The intent here indicates two different children; the son who insults his father is the son who rebelled against his pious and religious father and insults him. When it says that the “son is not embarrassed in front of his father” that is speaking about a son who is careful in his observance of the mitzvos, who it is not embarrassed from his father who insults him for this reason.  

The truth is the evil forms of Chutzpah are necessary in order to learn the proper uses of holy Chutzpah. A story is told about the Holy Rebbe Pinchas of Koritz zt”l:  

Once a student came to him and said that many people are making fun of him and insulting him for his worship of Hashem and therefore it's difficult for him to continue. The holy Koritzer Rebbe answered that in the beginning of the Shulchan Aruch the Remah writes that “a person should not be embarrassed – from those that mock his service of Hashem.” Rebbe Pinchas explained that the way to read this instruction is: “A person should not be embarrassed” in his service of Hashem. And if you ask where do I take the strength to stand up against these mockers? The answer is to get it “from those that mock his service of Hashem.” If they are not embarrassed to mock the truth, it is an a fortiori that we should not be embarrassed to side with the truth. The very existence of bad chutzpah is a lesson for holy chutzpah.  

When a Jew is faced with something that is forbidden for a Jew to do, for example if one is served a non-kosher food, he must immediately say “I am a Jew!” and he should not be influenced at all from whatever they think or say about him.  

When a person triumphs over such a tremendous test like this in the days just before the coming of Moshiach, and he's careful to do publicly the commandments that the Creator commanded, even if people insult him, then this causes a tremendous amount of satisfaction to Our Father in Heaven’ and he receives tremendous reward for this in this world and in the next world, as Chazal say in Pirkei Avot (5:23) “according to the amount of pain is the amount of gain”.  

In this vein, the holy Rebbe of Ruzhin zt”l said, that this is what Chazal meant when they said that the prophet Chavakkuk stood all of Judaism on one Mitzvah, and that's the mitzvah of faith as it says, (Habakkuk 2:4), “and the righteous lives by his faith”. The Holy  Ruzhiner  says that this prophecy was said concerning the generation before  Moshiach  comes,  because only through faith will the person be able to stay and remain in his Judaism, because before he does some kind of Mitzvah he will look around and see that people are making fun of him, and despite that he will not think about this at all rather he will do the Mitzvah, only because he believes that this is what the Blessed Creator commanded us to do. Therefore all of the commandments will be considered to be important and accepted even more in heaven, even if they were not done with all of the proper intentions like the old days.  

Therefore, specifically in such a weak generation as this will we be worthy that God will redeem us, something that didn’t take place in earlier generations, because specifically through standing up in this test, we show how trustworthy and faithful we are to Our Father in heaven and in this merit will He bring us back to His home.  

Along these lines, we find in the Midrash that this is why Yosef Hatzaddik was worthy to have his bones buried in the holy land when even Moses himself was not worthy. This is because Yosef Hatzaddik had a special merit. When he was seduced by Potiphar’s wife, he immediately said to her that he is a Jew and he cannot do anything against the commanded of the Creator. He was not embarrassed of his Judaism, rather he was proud of it! The same occurred when he was brought before Pharaoh King of Egypt, he told him proudly that he is a Jew. From this the Jews in Egypt learned not to change their names, not to change their language, and not to change their clothing as Jews, and through this they did not become assimilated and then they were worthy to be redeemed from Egypt.  

It is possible to say that this is what is being hinted to here in the scripture “and Yosef made them swear”, Yosef made his brother swear, “and the children of Israel saying” that they should always know and always say that they are Jews, and this merit, “God will surely remember you and redeem you”, that God will redeem the Israelites from their Exile, and also “and you will bring up my bones from here”, in the Merit of this fundamental concept that I am teaching the Jewish people not to be embarrassed of their Judaism and observance of the mitzvot.  

We too, in this Merit of keeping this concept strongly, we will also be worthy to a complete and total Redemption soon and in our days, Amen!