Putting things into perspective - a short story for my father's birthday

On the anniversary of the birthday of my beloved father on 27th of Shevat, הריני כפרת משכבו, I present the following story:

In 1990, I flew to New York with other yeshiva students. My father, not yet observant at the time, brought me to the airport, but was wearing a yarmulkah (skull cap) as he escorted me and my friends to the gate at LAX (in those days, you didn't need a ticket do this).

At the gate, the students broke out in a song and dance, as customary for Chabad Chassidim traveling to the Rebbe. Other passengers and spectators gathered and smiled, watching the exuberance of the young rabbinical students who looked like they came out of the old shtetl. The spectators (many of whom smiling and some even clapping along) were mostly African Americans; except for two - my father, and a guy with sideburns (and whose tzitzis were tucked in and whose yarmuklah was obscured by a odd-looking baseball cap).

While we danced, I noticed my dad standing next to this guy, telling him something, and then moving to the other side of our circle (we were dancing in the center of the terminal, where all gates connect). After our dance concluded, I walked over to my father and asked him about this.

"It was the weirdest thing," he said. "While you boys were dancing and everyone was standing around watching, this man, obviously a Jew, was shaking his head and said to me - 'What a chilul Hashem!'"

My father was not familiar with that expression, and asked the man for a translation.

The man explained: "A chilul Hashem. A desecration of G-d's name. When Jews advertise their Jewishness and carry on like this, they are causing a chilul Hashem."

And my dad concluded the story:

"So I looked at the boys dancing; I looked at the people watching; and I looked back at this fellow. 'YOU are a chilul Hashem,' I told him, and promptly walked away."

My dad didn't want to stand next to a self-hating Jew (as he called it). If there was one thing my father couldn't tolerate, it was Jews who were ashamed of their Jewishness.

In any case, with this story my father taught me a valuable lesson:

Sometimes people use the expression "chilul Hashem" incorrectly. This man was using the phrase incorrectly, and my father had to set him straight.

May we all be set straight, and understand that complying with covid policy to avoid a "chilul Hashem" - is the real chilul Hashem.