I just wanted to share a story I heard from my rebbe; I hope I have recounted it correctly. He (my rebbe) grew up in Yerushalaim area, and one of his friends told him as follows: When R' Yechezkel Abramsky was a living in the Yerushalaim neighborhood of Bayit Vagan, he would arrange for a secret minyan to read Megillas Ester on the 14th of Adar, in addition to the reading of 15th that everyone in that area does. One of the members of this minyan was Reb Abramsky's 14 year old nephew. This nephew had a friend of the same age (this friend many years later told the story to my rebbe) whom he invited to the secret minyan, giving him a chance to see the gadol up close and personal. So the two of them went, but when R' Abramsky saw the friend he grew upset. He turned to his nephew with a grave face and inquired, "why did you bring him here?" The poor friend felt like sinking into the floor when he heard the gadol say this in reference to him (can you imagine what that must be like?). He ended up permitting this young friend to stay as long as he promised not to tell anyone about this minyan.
Why? What was the big deal? What caused him to get so upset over this matter?- Reb Abramsky himself said (not in English, obviously), "A chumrah is of no value if people know about it."
Whoa, big yesod. Some chumros are not always totally private to this extreme. For example, someone you know may see you buying Cholov Yisrael milk in the supermarket, fine. That doesn't you have to tell every or even anyone it doesn't affect about it. (This was just an example, Cholov Yisrael is a whole sugya, not for now.)
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