Win Your Game

The Evil Inclination is tricky. It loves to take people for a ride, only to charge them premium hidden fees at the end of their lives.

As women, we have to be on guard that we don’t fall into its traps and schemes. What’s our Ace in the card game of life? Our level of modesty. It gets played every day, in every game.

There’s a lot at stake. Every night while we are sleeping, our souls go up to the heavenly court to give a daily accounting. Our level of modesty makes the biggest impact on our heavenly report card. The Chesed L’Alpaim states that modesty is the primary area that a woman is judged on.

The Maharal zt”l discusses the importance of modesty for women. Having mastered the revealed and secret parts of the Torah, when the Maharal says something, we can be assured that it’s the reality. 

He summarizes for us, “…the ultimate distinction of a woman and her supreme greatness is her perfection in modesty.” (From Oz V’Hadar Levusha, p 39.)

A women may be highly proficient in the laws of keeping kosher, observing Shabbat, praying, etc. but if she is lacking in her modesty, she is not going to succeed in the game of life like she is hoping to.

We now see why a women can go through her life thinking she’s totally righteous, yet be fooled by the Evil Inclination. The Evil Inclination will happily tell her, “You are so righteous. You give tons of charity and do so many favors for people. You are so stringent when it comes to Passover. OK, so you sometimes wear clothes that are little short or tight fitting. But times have changed and you have to be in style! You’re doing a fine job, keep it up!” After all his swindling, the Evil Inclination has fooled her. He’s holding the $10,000 wining chip in his hand when the game is over.

Why is it that modesty is so important for a woman? Because it greatly affects the other Jews around her. Her misjudgments in modesty can cause numerous men to have forbidden thoughts within a short amount of time. As Rabbi Shalom Arush shlit’a teaches: for a man, guarding one’s eyes is the foundation for success in everything. For a woman, it’s modesty.

Because one mistake in the area of modesty can cause fast and furious damage, it is worthwhile for a woman to frequently review the laws to make sure she hasn’t accidentally slipped in some way.

I’ve heard from numerous women that they were really surprised to discover modesty laws that they never knew about when they decided to pick up and read a book on the subject. These are women who were raised in religious homes.

For example, some women don’t know that a skirt needs to cover the front and back of the knees at all times, in all positions. When a woman bends over to pick something off the floor, the back of her knees will show if the skirt is not long enough. You can test your skirt length by bending over and feeling if the hem of your skirt covers what it needs to.

A highly-respected Rabbi explained that men find the brief exposure of a knee or midriff to be very provocative. Unfortunately, the Evil Inclination is happy to arrange situations where men are passing by just when we are exposing these parts.

If we were preparing for an exam worth 70% of our grade, wouldn’t it be smart to read the study guide once in a while? Just by reviewing the study guide (a.k.a. Jewish book on modesty), we will get a huge mitzvah to add to our heavenly bank account. It’s a brilliant investment for us. That way, we will be the ones holding the royal flush!