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wanted nothing at all to do with sensuality, heaven would certainly Torah details this for us and repeats the warning again and again: do not have the strength. Why didn’t you turn to the
and assuredly have guarded him from that sin. “Remember, do notforget, how you angered Hashem your God Master of all strength to empower you? If you wanted
in the desert. From the day that you left the land of Egypt until to overcome your anger so badly, why didn’t you
The Writing Is on the Wall you came to this place, you have been rebelling against Hashem” dedicate at least a quarter of an hour a day to pray
(Deuteronomy 9:7). Remember well: for 40 years, you rebelled for that?” To that question, you will have no reply.
And if this were so in the generation of the desert, it is a million against Hashem! This is the message to all generations: see and And so heaven will censure you and prosecute you ….
times more the case in our generation: that unless we invest half study this well. We must study this not in order to disparage our
an hour a day in the work of the will to ask Hashem to distance forefathers but so that we will learn from their tests and from their If you pray and afterwards stumble, there is no claim
us from sensuality and licentiousness and to help us attain holiness errors. Then we will be able to proceed upon the proper path. This against you. But if you do not pray and entreat, no
and the ability to guard our eyes, we will not have the ability to is because the essence of the goal in learning the Torah is to know excuse will be accepted.
choose freely and withstand tests! There is no necessity to expand how to conduct ourselves in our own lives, not in order to know
on the details, because everyone can see with his own eyes the what happened in the past. The Torah is not a book of history. The That is what I said on that cassette recording.
human condition in regard to matters of holiness. Does anyone Torah teaches each person the proper way to live his life. And the
delude himself into thinking that he is inoculated? The opposite is proper way is the way of work: “man was born to toil” (Job 5:7). In truth, this person was still far from keeping Torah and mitzvot,
true. In our generation, the unleashing of the drives and lusts of the Therefore, Moses rebuked the nation of Israel with the words, and far from praying, but these simple words—that there is a
body has penetrated even into the most guarded circles, until the “Hashem did not give you a heart to know” (Jeremiah 24:7). They Creator of the world Who can help and Who wants to help, and
self-control of every individual, without exception, is in a constant from Whom a person should request help—penetrated his heart
state of dangerous descent. The truth is written on the wall, in hot had to awaken on their own to entreat Hashem to turn their hearts and deeply inspired him. He had never heard such a simple and
to heeding Him and keeping His mitzvot. This is discussed in the
and bubbling blood, and it cries out: a person who does not work accessible solution. He also saw from his long experience that no
on holiness in this area is liable to abandon everything in a single Gemara (Avodah Zarah 5). And Tosafot explain there (s.v. ad) that, other solution had truly helped him. These words filled him with
after having seen numerous times how they had fallen prey to
moment and fall from every level! new hope.
grave sins—such as the golden calf, the spies, and their unending
In our generation, the evil inclination does not need to work hard self-pity and weeping—the people of Israel had to come to their He harnessed all of his will and the fire burning within him to
in order to persuade people to sin. It has brought about the internet own realization that they were in danger and that they must seek apply this advice. He began to devote time at night after work to go
and all of the various devices that incinerate people’s lives and drag Hashem’s help (cf. the introduction to Hishtapchut Hanefesh). If they to a place where he would be alone, and there he pleaded before
them down to the lowest level of Sheol. Everyone runs after these would have turned their hearts to examine their ways and their sins the Creator of the world in his simple words to rescue him from
devices and pays money in order to sin and not have a moment from the start, they would have understood the darkness and danger the trait of anger and to put an end to his quick temper, and he
free to do things that are truly good. The evil inclination is simply they were in. They would have reflected on the fact that even after asked Hashem to help him withstand tests. He prayed and pleaded
a genius. He has upgraded himself to the high-tech generation. Its having heard Hashem Himself declare “I am Hashem your God” a great deal in his own words—in particular, before any situations
devices do his work for him, and he can rest. Therefore, the evil and “You shall have no other gods,” they had descended to the that he knew were liable to trigger an outburst. At such times, he
inclination has gone on pension…. terrible nadir of the sins of the golden calf and of ingratitude, for would pray a great deal and at length, and cry out to Hashem to
which Moses rebuked them at great length. save him and help him.
This is not the place to detail all of the problems of the
generation, and a word to the wise is sufficient. But this is not Moses speaks to each individual: know what the true work is. This was not easy for him. Sometimes he thought that he is
merely theoretical, but a painful reality. We see and hear again and The true work is to request of Hashem every day: “Give us a heart speaking to himself, and that no one hears him, heaven forbid.
again about fine and holy families that were shattered into pieces to truly serve You.” As the Gemara says: “When the Holy One, But because he so strongly wanted to see a change in his life and
because of the temptations of sensuality. People about whom you blessed be He, said to Israel, ‘If only they would have this heart,’ because he felt that he had no other idea and no other recourse,
never would have believed it possible have fallen tragically into they should have responded, ‘Give it to us!’” As mentioned earlier, and his inner truth told him that this advice constituted all of his
realms of uncleanness, and smashed all of their children and family this “heart” refers to the will. Everyone must know that his work hope, he clung to this thread with all his might and all of his good