Who Needs Fame?
Do you want to be famous? Did you ever want to be famous? Why is it that so many young people need to be famous? Today with facebook and Twitter we have a new phenomenon called “micro-fame”, you have your “followers” and your “friends”. Why are we so intrigued by the lives of the famous?
For many it a search for significance, to be “discovered” to feel noticed. If I have a lot of “friends” or “followers” then I am somewhat significant. So we follow the famous hoping that somehow it will rub off on us.
Maybe you don’t need this kind of fame but you may need to be noticed by your peers, parents, teachers etc.
This may be why as people get older they tend to get depressed because they are not as productive and therefore have not as much to contribute and therefore don’t feel significant.
What does the Torah say about this internal struggle? You are created in the image of G-d; G-d thinks you are significant and that you play a significant and unique role in the cosmic divine plan. You have fame; G-d has noticed you, what other fame can come close to that.
The Rebbe for years would spend most of each Sunday receiving thousands of visitors, handing each one a dollar and giving them a blessing. One day an elderly woman came by and said, “Rebbe how is it that you don’t tire?” the Rebbe answered, “When you are counting diamonds you don’t ever get tired.”
Each of us is a diamond. Our inner value and worth should come from deep inside of us not from the people around us.
This weekend is the yartzeit of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson’s (this year marks the 22 anniversary of her passing). Together with her husband, the Rebbe, she selflessly served the Jewish community for practically all of her life. The Rebbetzin did not want any recognition or special treatment and wanted no fame whatsoever. To the extent that if she would go to a store and was recognized and given preferential treatment she would not go back to that store again.
She did not need external recognition to make her feel significant; she got her sense of significance from the fact that she was a diamond of G-d.
It was for this reason that she was able to be so kind and generous to all. You see when you feel like a diamond of G-d, then you realize that every person around you is a diamond as well. If you look at others and you don’t see a diamond it is probably because you don’t see yourself as a diamond. If you think you treat others like diamonds but you don’t feel yourself to be a diamond then you are probably not seeing them as diamonds either.
The Rebbe and Rebbetzin and so many of our great Jewish leaders truly felt that they were diamonds of G-d and that was what gave their life meaning and purpose and that is where they got their worth and significance. And that was what allowed them to then see everyone around them as diamonds and therefore treat them as such.
This Shabbat on her yartzeit is the time for each one of us to connect with our inner diamond and then be able to view all those around us as diamonds as well.
An amazing way to actualize this is to light the Shabbat candles tonight and every Friday evening before sundown and see the diamond shape flame as a reflection of your inner diamond and the inner diamond of everyone around you.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Zalman Marcus
P.s. This weekend is the Chabad Shluchot (Chabad Womens Leadership) Convention, it is always scheduled to coincide with the Rebbetzins yartzeit. I want to take this opportunity to wish Bassie and Rochel much success and a safe trip together with the other 2500 Shluchot from around the world who have gathered in New York for an energizing and inspiring convention.