Chazal teach us in the Tractate Avos that “There are three crowns: the crown of Torah, the crown of Priesthood and the crown of kingship, and the crown of a good name rises up over all of them!”. This “crown of a good name” means that where there are gatherings of people they will praise him for his deeds and for the perfection of his character traits. A person has no need to publicize his deeds or to praise himself, as the verse says in Mishlei that “a stranger should praise you but not your own mouth!”, and on the contrary, one should do one’s deeds in private only for the sake of heaven and in the end the honor and respect will follow even though he is only doing what he needs to do, and it is fitting to hide one’s deeds with the maximum secrecy possible and to flee from honor and in the end the honor will come and chase after him and Hashem Himself will publicize his deeds as the prophet says in Yirmiyah “Can a person hide himself in concealment and I will not see him?!”, and Chazal say that this means “I will show him off to others!”.
Everything that a person does in private, be it good or bad, Hashem will bring to the attention of the public and he will acquire a good or bad name respectively according to his deeds. Klal Yisrael, even if they are not prophets, are the children of prophets and recognize each person and assume he is on the level that he really is. A person may be recognized by his actions when relating to money or when he is drunk or angry, by his words and movements and according to everything that others can see as if he is pure and his deeds are straight and honest and his inside and outside match each other, or, on the other hand, he is one of the tricksters, it is easy for a discerning person to see the difference, and even if he would be able to trick the creations for a short period of time, once a person sees with his own eyes, in the end his shame will be revealed, and nothing in this world remains hidden.
