Stark Contrasts

Translated by Rabbi Lazer Brody

Stark contrasts characterize today’s generation. From the one hand, evil and the evil inclination have never been so powerful. On the other hand, the lights of teshuva and emuna are shining through the spiritual darkness in an unprecedented way. This is the generation that the sages of the Gemara were referring to when they said, yete velo achimenu – “may Mashiach come, but I don’t want to be there”, or literally, “I don’t want to see him.” In their crystal-clear, far-reaching spiritual vision, our sages knew how difficult the temptations would be in this final generation before Mashiach, and they didn’t believe that they’d have the power to preserve their personal holiness.
 
Most of the modern world views distorted values and outright lies as absolute truth. Rebbe Natan remarked that in a generation where lies are so blatant and prevalent that they’re virtually uncontested, the Geula – the full redemption of our people – will occur, for the revelation of truth’s light will be all the more powerful against the backdrop of darkness.
 
What spearheads all the filth and evil that’s so dominant in modern society? The answer is simple – sexual lust. The Zohar therefore writes that a person’s main challenge in the world is to maintain and guard personal holiness.
 
Rebbe Nachman goes a step further. He writes (Rebbe Nachman’s Discourses, 115), that as much as people love and chase money, their lust for fornication is even stronger than their lust for money. And like the Zohar, Rebbe Nachman says that one’s main challenge in the world is to guard personal holiness. Rebbe Natan adds (see Likutei Halachot, Shluchin, 3) that a person’s difficulties in life all stem from one’s failure to properly preserve personal holiness.
 
Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai’s reference in the Zohar to preserving personal holiness as life’s greatest challenge was not even a nuance for his generation. The lust of fornication began with the primeval serpent when the world was first created, for the serpent saw Adam and Eve copulating, and he lusted for Eve. His scheme was to make Adam sin so in hope that Adam would be punished and die so that he could take Eve.
 
We consequently see that the evil in the world and the root cause of death, tribulations and life’s difficulties all trace back to the “venom of the serpent”, the lust of fornication. This theme continues throughout the Book of Genesis. Angels lost their lofty stature because they harbored lust for mortal women (see Genesis 6:4, and Ramban’s elaboration). Promiscuity and the lust of fornication caused the flood in Noah’s time, for all of creation  – birds, animals and even plants  –  came under the terrible influence of the prevailing human lust (ibid 6:12).
 
Sexual lust rears its ugly head in the continuation of Genesis as well. Both the Egyptians and the Philistines tried to take Abraham’s wife away from him, for their respective leaders – Pharaoh and Avimelech – coveted her beauty. In the next generation, the same thing happened as serial-offender Avimelech harbored lust for Rebecca, Isaac’s wife. Shechem ben Chamor, a Canaanite prince from the Hivite tribe, lusted Dina  – Jacob’s daughter, abducted her and raped her. Later, we find that Potifar’s wife had typical Egyptian lust as she tried to molest the holy Yoseph.
 
In the Book of Exodus, we see that the sin of the Golden Calf was also rooted in debauchery and lust (see tractate Sanhedrin, 63b). And, in the Book of Numbers, we see how the lust of fornication led to the deaths of 24,000 men of the tribe of Simon in the fiasco of the Midianite women.
 
The Book of Judges cites that Samson’s downfall was due to his lust for Delilah, a beautiful but sinister Canaanite woman. Toward the end of Book of Judges, we learn about the catastrophic episode of the Tribe of Benjamin’s abduction and raping of a man’s concubine, which almost caused the destruction of the entire tribe. And this is only a partial glance at the history of this devastating lust, which is certainly not new to the world. The lust of fornication and promiscuity are the very nucleus of the evil inclination.
 
This generation’s obsession of debauchery in every shape of form, plastered all over every public forum imaginable and available at the touch of a screen or keyboard key seems to be history’s pinnacle of lust. What could be worse? is it a surprise to anyone that Mashiach tarries?
 
Despite our generation’s marvelous spiritual awakening of people returning to their roots, many have yet to realize that without uprooting the lust of fornication and promiscuity, one’s evil inclination remains very much in tact. The whole purpose of Torah and mitzvot is to enable us to fulfill Hashem’s wish that we become a holy nation, because we are His children and He Himself is Holy (see Leviticus 19:2). We have a job to do!