I will never forget when I heard the following message from Rabbi Miller OBM:
“Here we have an old, obese, Italian woman riding a bus in Brooklyn. Her hair is all messed up, and she doesn’t look very respectable. And she is talking at the top of her lungs to her daughter in Italian. And her daughter is listening very attentively and respectfully.”
“But on the next bus is a very respectable-looking Jewish mother. She is neat and clean. And she is talking to her daughter in Yiddish. And her daughter is hush-hushing her. She is embarrassed…“
Then Rabbi Miller said:
“I want to tell you something: I remember the boys of the Slobodka Yeshiva I attended before the war. Beautiful and wonderful men and boys. And they were all slaughtered by the Germans. What a terrible thought. And HASHEM cries (as to say) over these beautiful and pure souls. But there is something that HASHEM cries and mourns about even greater: About that girl on the bus who is embarrassed about her being Jewish.” (This is based on the Talmud Hagigah)
That a Jew can be embarrassed of his Judaism, from being a servant of HASHEM, a member of the “Nation of Holy Priests”, is the greatest tragedy possible.
We must be the proudest individuals on the face of the earth. We were chosen by the Creator so be His people. Let us never forget that even for a second.
So don’t hide your TzitTzits in your pockets. Don’t cover your Yarmulka with a baseball cap. Don’t cover the Lulav you just bought in a shopping bag. You are a Jew. A Hebrew. A Chosen Prince! (or princess!). You are a grandchild of Avraham, Yitzchok, and Yaakov our Holy Fathers!