Occasional Idolatry

Hashem is perturbed when people veer from the path of simple logic. Good manners are necessary for maintaining a normal, healthy society – derech eretz kadma laTorah – good manners are important before we learn a word of Torah. If a person is bad-mannered, he can’t possibly be a Torah scholar, even if his beard is down to his knees.

Simple logic and common sense carry a person directly to the commandments of Torah. Any human who is honest with himself – non-Jew and Jew alike – will ultimately seek the path of Torah, just as our holy patriarchs perceived the entire Torah through their powers of observation and contemplation. Straightforward logic dictates that a society cannot function properly in a climate where murder, thievery, dishonesty, and adultery are rampant. These are all prohibitions of Torah, the logic of which any decent person can comprehend.

The more that a person ignores common sense, the more he perturbs Hashem. A stark example of this is drug users, whose punishment – even in this world – is severe. They lose their humanity and many of them die terrible deaths after much suffering.

Cigarette smoking goes against common sense. The smoker destroys his heart and lungs; he’ll even buy himself cigarettes before he buys bread for his children.

The sickness of marijuana has unfortunately penetrated the Orthodox Jewish community. This shows a lack of common sense. The Gemara says that a person doesn’t sin unless a spirit of folly enters him. In other words, he sins when he loses his common sense.

Now, you want to ask me why I call marijuana a sin…

Many ask: What’s the big deal about getting high every once in a while? The “once in a while” frequently becomes a wicked master by the name of addiction. A slave to substances cannot be a servant of Hashem. Additionally, most addicts – especially functioning ones – deny that they are addicted. Substance usage defies common sense in that it destroys mind, body and soul. As such, a person’s willful self-destruction angers the Creator more than any other sin and arouses strict Heavenly judgments.

The addiction to marijuana will lead to dozens of sins.

The “once in a while” smoking of marijuana is just like occasional idolatry.

A person who smokes dope can’t be a Breslever; he can’t even be a Jew for that matter, because he’s serving a false god, especially if he is addicted. When a person is high on marijuana or hashish or whatever, he might as well be in some temple of idolatry in Tibet.

The same is true of ingratitude – it too leads to limitless sins. Ingratitude is an addiction that all of mankind suffers from. Our sages relate that even animals express appreciation, as the Torah says, “The ox knows its owner and the donkey the footsteps of its master” (Isaiah, 1:3).

Thus, if a person lacks gratitude, he can’t plead, “I didn’t learn Torah, I didn’t know any better.” Gratitude and expressing thanks are the most basic of human ethics.

Lack of gratitude leads to all types of tribulations in this world, including illness, divorce, and child-rearing troubles, Heaven forbid.

So much of our contemporary suffering is the result of our yet-to-be rectified sin of baseless crying. We cry and complain and the exile only gets longer and longer. Our main job is to uproot this despicable trait of ingratitude. We must pursue the path of thanks and gratefulness to attain our imminent redemption.

With the above in mind, we can now understand Rebbe Natan’s message: “If everyone would constantly give thanks and praise to Hashem, whether under good circumstances or not, as is written: ‘In Hashem (expressing G-d’s attribute of loving-kindness) I will praise His word, in Elokim (expressing G-d’s attribute of judgment) I will praise His word,’ surely all the troubles and all the exiles would be completely nullified and the complete redemption would take place!”

This is a fundamental lesson that should never be forgotten. Rather, it should be engraved upon our hearts! Rebbe Natan promises that if we express gratitude, our suffering and exile will be finished. Hashem helps those who help themselves, so stay away from the substances too! May Hashem give you success!