If the point is that there is such immense talmud torah in Lakewood then what is impressive is the magnitude of the mitzvah of talmud torah, and as talmud torah is one of the greatest mitzvohs that should be the point being stressed. Why then the emphasis on “kidush hashem’. That is not even a mention of the term “mitzvha” (of kidush hashem) but simply straight up “kidush hashem”. When you are referring to with the general term kidush hashem it does not seem that you mean that many people are fullfilling the mitzvah of kidush hashem, and rightly so, since thousands of people learning torah is not a kiyum of the mitzvah of kidush hashem, See the Rambam in Yesodie Hatorah as to what the mitzvah of kidush hashem is.
Rather “kidush hashem” has become a term that has come to mean that Klal Yisroel is impressive, meaning that it reflects well on yidden as a whole. This is similar to when people say that if a yid did something publically that refelcts well on the yidden he made a “kidush hashem” and if it reflects poorly on the yidden, such as he committed a crime (not a chilul hashem) and he was arrested then its a chilul hashem, basically because outsiders will look down at yidden.
As such the terms kidush hashem and chilul hashem as they are used have absolutely nothing to do with either the mitzvah, nor with hashem. A kidush hashem is beneficial to yidden since goyim will look at individual yidden with respect, and so is of obvious benefit to them because people like to be viewed in a positive light, and the opposite is true of what is called a chilul hashem. That is the last thing they are thinking of is hashem and what they care about is the public image of yidden for the personal benefit of yidden.
This is a made up concept of what the mitzvah of kidush hashem is about, and its not at all the mitzva they care about. So its time that we cut out the make believe and call these things what they are. When people say a guy who got arrested made a chilul hashem that is the last thing on their minds. So its high time that people be honest about it and say what they mean, that they are mad at him because his getting caught caused that goyim should look down at them personally.
The Brisker Rov said that “I grew up among chochomim my whole life and 2 terms I never heard mentioned were kidush hashem and chilul hashem”. And this is because those terms as used have nothing to do with Torah and everything to do with how people want themselves to be viewed by others because they are wearing a yarmulka. It is something completely selfish that they want others to be impressed by them and not look down at them.
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