Fear of Heaven of a wayward Jewish comedian

 HH

Ever since Tucker Carlson started eating bugs, he seemed to get clouded on certain simple issues, and therefore I'm not prone to pay attention to him. However, yesterday he came up in my x feed, with an interview of Jewish comedian Ari Shaffir, who I never heard of before, and curiosity got the better of me, and I started to listen. Ari curses, probably every fourth word. Rabbainu says in Sefer Hamidos that someone who uses vulgar language, it is a manifestation of the bad thoughts in their heart - not to mention the terrible damage it does to society especially the ears of those who hear it, as the Talmud warns, the ears are the first to be burned in hell, may HY save us. Even still I listened as much I was able to stomach. 

Ari told Tucker how he went off the derech. We know from our Sages that Jews go off the derech in order to permit for themselves promiscuity, and that is clearly the case here - this he did not tell Tucker., but it did come out kind of obvious as he described a little of the things he did once he was free.... Ari said that one Shabbos in Yeeshiva he had left a light on over his bed, and when he wanted to cover it so that he could sleep, he tried over and over again unsuccessfully, and then he wanted to just turn off the light even though it would desecrate Shabbos (according to later day rabbis). Nevertheless for fear of being caught he abstained. This he said haunted him for years, he challenged himself, if he believed in HY he would not violate Shabbos, and it must be that he did not believe in HY, and that is why he only kept Shabbos because of his fear of those around him. With this reasoning he convinced himself to be honest and have integrity, and just reject HY straight up, and not keep the Torah. It's always the righteousness that prevails and leads people to do bad.

Ari also mentioned that the thief who steals secretly is worse, and is punished more severely, than someone who steals in the open, because it is like he is denying that HY sees everything. So there you see it is better not to be only half committed. Funny thing, because in many ways stealing openly is much worse, as the Talmud brings verses showing that it is like actual murder. 

Also very fundamental this matter is the Talmud in Brachos 28b when Rabbun Yochanan ben Zakai was readying himself to pass on to the next word he blessed his students that their fear of Heaven should be equal to their fear of people, and they asked him, that's it?! He replied, hallivay - if only...., know, that when a person does a sin he says that no one should see him. See there. After this was revealed explicitly, it takes great arrogance to think one is superior. 

In Likutay Moharan 209, Rabbainu brings the Talmud, Brachos 63, that a thief in the tunnel calls out to HY, and he calls these bad prayers, see there. Thus we see that this is the nature of man, who must grapple with his limited awareness of HY, even when sinning, still to persevere, and always to seek out HY.

It is fascinating that R' Chaim Volozhin in his infamous Nefesh Hachaim accuses chasidim of something similar, if i remember correctly, he writes how he came upon a hassid doing something forbidden, and he chastised the chusid, and the chusid replied that he would not stop from doing it because of his fear of R' Chaim, only from fear of HY, and he continued whatever it was he was doing (-from the sound of it, it doesn't sound like it was a major transgression, but something much lighter). R' Chaim continues to holler at how terrible this is, and he brings the story from Kedushin of R' Amram Chasid who in a fit of lust set up a ladder and was racing up towards a gorgeous woman, and in order to save himself from sin he screamed out, "fire, there is a fire in the house of Amram" and everyone came to help put out the fire, and they found R' Amram on his way to sin. With this R' Chaim rests his case. This seems rather flimsy, because it was R' Amram himself who called them and basically physically prevented himself from going through with the deed. There is of course much more to this, but that's it for now. 

Probably the worst thing he said was slandering orthodox Jews, especially those in Jerusalem, claiming that because they wear the additional garment of tzitzis they have body odor, Gd forbid. Tucker asked him if he was joking, and he repeated himself a few times, that he meant it in all seriousness. Of course this is projection, because we know that promiscuity stinks... So this is a terrible lie and slander of our holy people, may he merit to repent and make up for it.

To his credit, he sold the method of studying in Yeshiva, even though he didn't quite describe it properly, he gave across its nature and insistence of asking all the questions necessary to figure things out and make sure they are true.

Na Nach Nachma Nachman MayUman