Governing Ourselves

Rabbi Chaim ben Attar, the holy “Ohr Hachaim”, writes that guarding one’s eyes is a prerequisite for overcoming the evil inclination. He says, among other things, “It is known that the mitzvot which Hashem commands His holy nation are mitzvot that they are capable of doing, so they must encourage themselves to perform them. But in regards to cleansing oneself of sexual urge, since a person has such a strong natural affinity in this area, he cannot overcome it until he removes the stimulating agents from his eyes and from his thoughts. Unless he closes his eyes to anything that incites sexual lust and cleanses his thoughts of anything impure, he won’t be able to overcome his lust.”

The Gemara (Kiddushin, 81a) tells the story of Rebbe Amram the Pious, whose mind was completely clean of any thoughts of lust. A group of young Jewish women who had been taken hostage were released and sent to the Yeshiva town of Nehardaa in Babylon. The Rabbis decided that the young women would be safest in the home of Rebbe Amram the Pious, who certainly wouldn’t touch them. The young women were given a ladder to climb up to the loft in Rebbe Amram’s house, and then the ladder was taken away. Rebbe Amram accidentally glanced at one of them, his evil inclination almost got the best of him, and he felt a burning fire of passion within him. Despite his advanced age, he grabbed a ladder that six young men would have difficulty in lifting, and started to climb up to the loft. Fearful that he’d commit a sin, he started yelling at the top of his lungs, “Fire! Fire! A fire is burning in Amram’s house! Come quick and help!”

All the rabbis in the neighborhood ran to help extinguish the fire. But when they barged into Rebbe Amram’s house, they saw him halfway up the ladder heading toward the young women. Agitated, they said, “Rebbe Amram, you’ve embarrassed us!”

Rebbe Amram replied, “Better I should be a source of embarrassment in this world and not be a source of embarrassment in the world to come.” Rebbe Amram was willing to humiliate himself rather than commit a sin, so he was saved.

Guarding one’s eyes is of little worth as long as one harbors lewd thoughts. In addition to guarding our eyes, we must guard our thoughts.

If either a lewd image or a lewd thought can trip a person, then a lustful image together with a thought will make a person lose control of himself. A person is highly vulnerable to sexual stimulation and temptation.

We are therefore behooved to find a way to fight temptation so that the soul can rule over the body. The Ohr HaChaim warns that unless a person stops thinking about sexual lust, his natural inclination will continue to gravitate in that direction.

Our sages warn us not to “negotiate” with lust and temptation. By trying to argue with lust, one is preoccupied with lust, and that’s not recommended.

A person’s brain is his most important asset. Who would dare think of enabling the tiniest particle of a foreign object to enter the brain? The results would be catastrophic, almost certainly fatal. Why should the spiritual be any different? Why should we let spiritually lethal elements to enter our soul by way of our brain? Once something enters the brain, we can no longer control it.

With this principle in mind, a person can easily understand his own life and everything that his brain has been exposed to. But, don’t despair! The brain can be repaired by guarding it from any unwholesome content and by filling it with wholesome content.

A person’s neshama, his Divine soul, is very cogent. It has the ability and potential of winning the battle against lust. One must do what he can to guard his mind and to seek Hashem’s assistance through daily personal prayer.

This world is darkness. The Torah is our spiritual illumination that cuts through the darkness. Without the Torah, there’s no way to overcome the virtually insurmountable forces of evil in the world. But as we see with our own eyes, anyone who succeeds in getting closer to Torah benefits from a new and illuminated life, which changes dramatically for the better. Daily, I meet people who tell me how their entire lives turned around for the better just from listening to one Torah CD or from reading one book.

Guarding our eyes not only invokes Divine abundance but leads to purification of the heart. Purity of the heart makes life wonderful. A person with a pure heart is never angry, jealous or resentful. He lives a life of inner peace that’s simply paradise. We should all merit, amen!