Outside to inside

I always repeat what the old Lubavitcher Rebbe once said. They came to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, I think it was the previous one, Rav Yosef Yitzchak zichrono levrachah, and they told him, “Your talmidim are deceiving the world. They're putting up a front as if they are frum Jews. They're acting very frum but they're not really that frum!” So what did the Rebbeh say? He said they should keep on deceiving the world until they deceive themselves too. He said the gemara says if someone deceives the public in order to get charity, hamatzveh es betno, if he acts like he has a swollen belly, vehamekapeach es shoko, or he acts like his foot is chopped off, he bends his knee up, eino niftar min haolam ad sheyavo liyedei kach, the end will be that's how it will turn out. If you pretend, then what you pretend to be will happen. “That’s what’s going to be with my chassidim too – they’ll pretend and pretend and pretend, and they’ll become better and better just because of that; the frummer they act, the frummer they’ll become.”

Rav Avigdor Miller, Toras Avigdor, Emor, 5781