Guard Your Eyes Guard Your Soul | Torat HaChassidut (9)

we're back we're back to our series The after nearly two months of uh T taking care of some other important things the holidays and of course some family things but we're back to this very important series thatat on our Sunday night and tonight's is going to be for the OFA and also for the and all of and all the righteous Noah that continue to support the organization continue to help us and will continue to uh watch and learn together with us and grow closer to each and every day so tonight uh before we get started with the uh uh extraordinary series with uh which quite a few of you have asked me about uh just a reminder for all of you the to go to the kiru store get back to doing kiru get back to Distributing books in your community we have a new shipment of the uh book that's English and Hebrew uh with uh you know beautiful pictures in it great by RAB fman is raban this is the only English book that we have in the store currently but uh we are uh getting uh some of the shipments we're also sending them out some of Ren's uh English books but that's more of a selective uh uh you know Case by casee basis uh also we have the of course we have's all of these are in this small extraordinary book which uh certainly will change your life if you get through it and uh really uh understand what you're reading and of course we have R shit's book we have my books in there and we have the uh USBS uh we have the USBs that uh are in English hundreds and hundreds of hours of uh tah in there from over the years the series about Bon the series of stump the rabbi and era of mashiah tunit all of these other extraordinary uh serieses are uh in the USBs they're there for free for you to distribute in your communities and soon we're going to uh start letting you know about what this extraordinary new box is that's going to be also in the kiru store anyone that's interested in sponsoring and helping this is going to be a for and will start Distributing those very soon as well B the uh this is the posters I spoke to you about some time ago but a completely new version of it and it's going to be a major healer for uh so with that being said we have uh one final announcement which is the uh Oran film is going to be uh publicized on November 30th November 30th the world will change the world will never be the same again simply because once the hidden light is exposed to people people will see things that we've discussed over the last 10 years literally shown to them in black and white in ways like never before uh the film has taken enormous amount of time resources uh and a lot of fighting against the it's ready and it'll be publicized on November 30th uh so we've had several trailers uh publicized in the last month one of them today and one person uh said it rightly that just the trailer alone is a film The Trailer alone is a is gives you so the film is a million times more than that get prepared to publicize it get prepared to uh do everything you possibly can to get this film out there to as many people as possible we literally want millions of people to watch it within the next within the first 24 hours uh but of course we did our effort success in the hands of Hashem anyone that wants to support anyone that wants to help is more than welcome to to do so if you want to uh do it I tried to warn them they didn't want to listen one of the things that I've been speaking against over the last several years is Cash Advance lending money with high interest some of those rates legally are as high as 1,00% a year people are not searching for the truth what are they searching for quick way out of my problems one of the things that the tamut teaches us simply how to behave social media is discussed extensive in the Torah in the oral tah in the written Torah [Music] in God wanted to give you a chance to follow the to you decided to go against you desecrated his name the amount of punishment and suffering you're going to get is literally going to be endless every single second you stay friends with your old Christian friends with your old missionary friends with your old atheist friends with your old friends that are anti- tah is a life risk [Music] you have to get rid of a lot of the stuff that triggers you if you want to progress that means you have to abandon the past by being modest in behavior and clothing makes the person a vessel that is able to accept a certain amount of Holiness in the world pornography is no less addictive than the hardest drugs in the world experts say there's another pandemic children exposed to pornography on the devices we give [Music] [Applause] them says after you make the same sin twice tells you it's allow here we see that a is not just a fairy tale that sometimes people would like for him to to be the majority choose to be evil before the mashia arrives today they look like they're a millionaire today they look like they're living large look around the corner and they're gone [Music] I tried to warn them but they didn't want to listen so we have our series that uh just to remind you the world ofid stands on you know not only teachings of the uh of the you know of theim the bov the of rusa his brother uh you know the uh the T you know all of the great over the last few hundred years but in general is already found in the times of the gar it's just that it was a uh uh selected or or specified or taught in a unique way over the last few years since the time of the bmov and theim from G from kabad from uhans uh all of the great that are out there in the world today are all practicing the same exact Judaism as the rest of the Orthodox Jews in the world it's just that there are certain things that are taught within the world ofid that allow them to do more than what is required for the rest of am is that is doing simply what they're required to do the problem today is that if a person is not familiar with what really is they'll actually be confused they'll be confused so much so that they'll actually think that they can buy into by simply getting together a few thousand dollars they'll get themselves a stral uh uh you know unless if they're in kabad there's no stals there uh they'll get themselves some uh garments for uh you know that wear uh and they think they're uh but the reality is that is not so much the clothing but really what's beneath it because if a person spends several thousand on the stal and some other garments and looks like aid but still acts like a there's nothing about him because in general as we've learned during the first eight lectures of this series is doing above and beyond what already requires us to do and is taking us on a journey where he's trying to teach us everything we possibly would need to know in order to be in whatever level will we can some of the things may seem easy to some and certainly some of them seem completely impossible in the last lecture we learned about the importance of removing immoral thoughts ilal thoughts from our minds warned us what to do when these thoughts arrived in our mind now today we already know and we've learned together what the rambam has said which is that people that have these thoughts in their mind on a regular basis are people that do not have any tah in their minds and if you find yourself learning tah but still having these inappropriate thoughts that simply means you don't have enough to the question is is now what do you do once you're already learning TOA once you've already decided to change once you've already decided to go on the right path but the path that you're on is not necessarily in the uh you know the bet mdash the path that you're in is in New York is in Florida is in Arizona is in Australia is in Israel and in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and different places where unfortunately you know not everybody's walking around like they just came down from Mount saai some people walking around IM modest or you drive in a highway every day to go to work or to even go to go to Sho wherever you're going and you see the Billboards and they're constantly full of immodesty or you go on the internet and know for work purposes for personal purposes even to watch this sure and you'll see advertisements everywhere pictures everywhere news everywhere full of immodesty whether they're advertising for soap or they're advertising for dog food it always is coupled with with IM modesty so immodesty is everywhere and if it's not there it's even in places where you would never think like Discovery Channel where you're learning about animals and nature you would never think that this has anything to do with damaging your mind but tonight you'll learn that even watching things that you think are innocent or not related to humans could very well be damaging your mind and your mind is the most important thing because that's the one thing that connects you to so is now going to take these holy words and help us protect the windows to our soul in the case where a person is trying to purify thems but either they have so much garbage from the past still in the system or they EX accidentally run into it what do you do how do you guard your eyes how do you guard your soul in the seventh section of the says as follows if a person accidentally seees something indecent God forbid such as animals or birds mating or hands breath of a woman's hair or skin that should be covered a one's wife when she's in a state of need of impurity or similar things he should immediately recite the verse in the book of Deuteronomy 15:9 do not follow your heart so as not to defile his mind God forbid this is the section we're going to delve into today where seems rather simple but once we delve into it we see the depth of the words of the extraordinary first and foremost Rik is assuming that we already if we've arrived in the seventh section of this book looking at immodesty is no longer a choice but rather an accident if you're still choosing to look at immodesty choosing to look at pornography choosing to look at things that are inappropriate then perhaps you should watch the first eight lectures of this series several more times add to it the tuna film add to it kafak lecture add to it the uh kib film add to it the Gom film once you finished all of those then go go through the entire playlist that is mentioned in the T guide to T that we have which has nearly 200 lectures there as well once you complete that you'll be finished you'll be fine you'll be clean you'll be ready for chapter 7even of thean you'll be at a point where looking at immodesty becomes an accident so what happens if it's accidentally happens where he sees something indecent now of course knows who he's dealing with sometimes a person doesn't actually know the definition of what indecent means there are plenty of people that are walking around thinking that they're perfectly modest even though their behavior is like animals they may have modest clothes they may cover their hair they may wear a stal they may dress perfectly righteous but their behavior is literally no different than an animal in other cases there are people that walk around thinking that they are modest because the dress is long but they don't real realiz that the fact that it's long is almost useless because it has a slit on the side or the back or wherever it is which actually make it more more provocative than had they worn even a shorter dress or they'll wear their only on part of their hair because they figure that they like this part this ponytail they have or they they they don't necessarily need to cover everything or like many women do they wear these baseball hats they wear a baseball hat and all of their hair is out and they think that they're covering their hair now again nice people wonderful people but as far as following the not so much not so much so sometimes a person needs to learn a definition and that's what the does for us here where he says if a person would accidentally see something indecent how could you possibly see something indecent accidentally he gives us an example you accidentally saw animals or birds mating I can assure you that many people that are watching this right now and many people that are in your synagogues do not even know that's a sin in fact they don't even think there's anything wrong with it but the in page 20 says to us the sages taught that in the verse in Deuteronomy 23 verse 10 that you shall beware of anything evil is referring to things that a person would see and would end up uh bringing immoral thoughts to their mind and then thear gives different examples of things that are considered immoral but if a person does not trust the opinion of the sages they could simply look at the AL you go to the rambam and the rambam after teaching Us in in chapter 21 where in uh Al number 18 He talks about how it's forbidden to waste seed it's forbidden for a person to engage in uh relations with uh even his own wife and in in in the public you know you have to be moral you have to be modest it's forbidden to do a lot of different things that unfortunately today have become a norm but here there's one thing that the rambam says that I can assure you many people don't realize is even forbidden in chapter 21 verse number 20 the ran paskins one should not look at animals beasts and fowls at the time males and females are coupling it is however permitted for a breeder of livestock to insert the male animal organ into the female since he is working in his profession and he will not be motivated to immoral thoughts so here the r and the same thing in the in chapter 23 uh the third says that it's forbidden to look at animals now of course if somebody's watching one of these nature shows Discovery or whatever they're called which are very interesting and certainly better than the garbage they have on television uh news and politics and sports but sometimes they'll show you things like this and people will think it's perfectly fine perhaps even funny this is 100% forbidden 100% forbidden for you for your kids for your family for anybody why why is this forbidden for the same reason that the rambam says that it's forbidden for men to look at a woman while they do laundry even forbidden to look at the colored garments of a woman that he knows because it'll bring these thoughts to his mind and it's the same thing that it's forbidden for him to look at his own wife in a way that's permitted when she's pure but when she's not pure because these will bring thoughts to the person's mind and that's what thean is telling us that whether he's looking at animals or birds or even a woman that's not his wife or even his wife when she's impure or anything that's similar not only has he done something that's forbidden but he has put himself at risk he has endangered his holy of hly police years ago there was a meeting between a very rare meeting between rabar and R of course the abuat family is known for hundreds of years as holy people miracle workers and even was no less astounded by the extraordinary success that R has had in the world of Torah not just in his memory and scholarship but with his children and he asked them how is it that you have merited that all of your children have me I mean one after another each one is I mean there are many great sages throughout the years but to Merit all of your kids being is something that's very rare as you can see now not only do we have just complete his tenure the now his other son has become the has given us a blessing may bless him and all the good that he does with but was asking a question of Rya how did you marit to do it when rad says why I learned Tora and dedicate says no many others are also dedicated to T many others are also learning T but to Merit all of your children being blessed in such a way you did something different told him yes I never looked at the women aside from his wife never looked at the women to such an extent that when I was sitting in the bed and there were cases every day coming in where there would be divorces or all types of cases and sometimes the women would come often they would come dressed inappropriately I would never look at them even once I would always look down pretending like I'm writing everything that they're saying in reality I didn't want them to be offended that I'm not looking at them so I wanted to look as if appear as if I'm writing down everything that they're saying but I already remembered everything they said another story found out what was he actually writing he was really drawing something for one of his kids each time the kid that acted the best would get the drawing of the day and he was quite an artist I hear but throughout all of those years of sitting in the bed de and never looked at a woman protecting the windows to the N this in another story said and this was heard from David his son that when they asked him how to what Merit do you attribute this extraordinary memory that you have remembering t as if it's all in front of you like says was different than everybody else everyone else was obligated to write a seph t as a s as a scribe by copying it from another seph did not why because to the was in front of him at all times we don't even have the concept of what that means had the entire Tora in front of him to what do you attribute that says we have aah where in the is we say it multiple times a day in the and also and then there we say you shall not follow after your heart and then after it says you should not follow after your heart and then it says you remember my so if you do not look at things that are inappropriate hasm tells you you'll remember my you'll remember so both of these extraordinary gifts attributes to protecting his eyes and the reality is that the Torah is telling us that protecting our eyes is protecting our n and if a person once any chance whatsoever of ever being holy it all begins with the eyes because if you could protect your eyes you can protect your breit you could protect your Kusa you could protect your mind but if you don't protect your eyes it's impossible for you to ever arrive at Holiness now page 20 20b delves into this point says what does it mean do not follow your heart meaning to what extent is this the T says you shall not follow your heart based on this said a man should not drink from this cup while setting his eyes on another cup what does this have to do anything now obviously the anti-semite that look into our that always look for things and excuses to justify their hate look at something like this and they don't uh they don't think anything of it they all focus on the same oh look the three-year-old or the or the all the different things that they have no concept of so they try to harp on those but in reality here you have something something you should look into why are the sages talking about cups what does Cups have to do with following your heart that's because this shows just a small example of how holy our sages were how holy our Torah is where when they spoke about things they spoke about them with a clean tongue even when the matter at hand was something that has to do with morality now of course we know that according to the Torah a man is a Jewish man is allowed to marry more than one wife certainly so does a a non is allowed to marry more than one wife in Judaism according to the tah as long as the man provides what's NE necessary for the other wife he's allowed to marry another wife now this is no longer done in the vast majority of Jewish communities around the world either because of the ashkanazi Tak ofon for nearly a thousand years where he said it's no longer allowed or even in the Safari world where it's only permitted in specific circumstances and there are cases that were brought to theion where an ashkanazi would come to him to permit him to marry a second wife because of extraordinary circumstances like for example if his current wife was in a coma uh or or or or ran away or something like that and he's then permitted to marry a second wife and we've dealt with this in the past we've had a situation and uh so marrying a second wife is permitted according to the Torah customarily it's no longer done like it was in the past but this is the reason why rebi says a man should not drink from one cup while setting his eyes on another cup meaning they're comparing in their clean language the cohabitation the intimacy between man and his wife as a cup drinking from a cup he says even if his wife doesn't know about it he should not be thinking about another woman while he's together with her in fact even if the woman he's thinking about is also his wife he's not allowed to think about her meaning even if he's married to two different women and of course not allow to be together with them both at the same time he's together with his one wife he's not allowed to think about the other one while he's together with the other one he's not allowed to to think about the first one meaning that the primary reason of why Ru and other have taken the stand against marrying more than one woman just regularly is because people were not even able to fulfill this keep their mind clean while they're together with their wife if the only reason why they wanted to marry more than one wife was just for the provocative reasons like in the Muslim world then there's no reason for it there's no permission for it but to this extent tell us is how much we need to be careful and protecting our eyes because the same 208 says in the name of R the son of RAB the son of RAB whoever looks at women will ultimately come to sin and whoever gazes at the heel of a woman will have children who are not of good character meaning that protect your eyes is not just something that's recommended that's a good idea but is actually one of the few things that has consequences in this world if you look at women you'll end up sinning you'll end up wasting seed you'll end up committing adultery you'll end up doing all types of things that toat says are forbidden in fact it doesn't end there even if someone who Jud looks without acting ultimately this will lead to action this will lead to problems and how do you know look at your kids if your kids are wild your kids have bad character traits not when they're three four five six seven years old pretty much all of them have issues when they're young and still not developed I'm talking about once they're already teenagers once they've already developed they become men theyve become women but they have nasty character traits it's your fault why you didn't protect your eyes and certainly they still need to fix it but if you're asking why did Hashem give me such terrible kids you should ask yourself why did you give yourself such permission to look at whatever is not yours many times people have friends from the opposite gender and I've said this for the last 10 years there is no such thing as platonic relationships the only thing there is is atomic relationships it's just a matter of time before that relationship between you and her explodes into something forbidden and that's exactly what thear says and you should not Converse excessively with a woman because you may ultimately come to perform an act of loudness people that have friends or colleagues that they become friendly with of the opposite gender they're asking for problems all you got to do is look at anybody that you know that's divorced and ask him who committed the adultery and with whom and you'll find out it's always the friend it's always the colleague it's always the platonic relationship that turned into Atomic but the sages teach us all of these very sensitive matters with very clean language with very pure words in order to show us that even though this is the issue that's on the mind of everyone does not give us permission to just do what we want needless to say look at what we want even though it's animals that are meeting still does not give us any permission to look at it unless you are someone that's in the business of meeting these animals and it's your profession it's just like a male doctor that has women patients he's allowed to perform the surgeries or the things that he has because he's occupied with his profession he's not thinking the provocative thoughts of course there's in this generation there's always exceptions and there's always people that unfortunately are criminals behind the uh behind the uniform but generally speaking when you go to a doctor you don't have to worry about these types of things still for all women it's we've always said it's always an obligation for you to search out a female doctor for all needs and for men to search out a male doctor for all needs and if it's not possible to find a male or female doctor then you go to the opposite was once somebody asked me listen I I want to have some backaches but uh the uh the the you know the place that we have it's only women there giving a massage said okay go to a different place that has men no I don't want to sin so I just want ask if it's allowed to go I said no no it's it's you have you have other places that have men that are going to give you the massage because you have a back ache or whatever you have ache go there oh no you know it's not really uh you know I don't really like that oh okay so exactly so you are going to sin don't add don't try to pretend like you're some sadik and you're pretending like you don't want to sin you want me to somehow put a kosher stamp on your pig if you really have a back cake you'll go to somebody that could actually help you and it doesn't have to be somebody that you're attracted to now if a person wants to protect their Nish they'll be careful of where they go of what they do and it all begins with the eyes and that's what theat is telling us here that if a person saw it by accident immediately they should say to themselves this verse that we say do not follow after your heart why why do not follow after your heart why the heart the heart is referring to the imagination this is a dangerous place once a person looks at something for long enough which could be literally as much as two maybe three seconds it's not the first look it's usually the second look the turnaround one the one that where you're already looking at the person not just they were on in your line of sight at that moment your mind starts transferring the information to your imagination to your heart and the longer you look the more fuel you're giving to your imagination to think more and more things and if you're looking at something inappropriate the outcome is going to be inappropriate even if you're looking at someone that you shouldn't even be attracted to whether it's a relative a colleague someone that's married your best friend whoever it is the more you stare at someone the more you allow the mind to imagine and that's why the is telling us as soon as you seen something accidentally that's in appropriate that's indecent immediately repeat the verse do not follow after your heart why don't let that accidental look turn into a stare turn into something that is going to continue bringing in more of this inappropriate information into your heart and start imagining things so remind yourself don't don't bring it into your heart don't bring it in because if you let it in then the next stage happens which is that the yet and his wife the are going to get access to the mind because after a person has taken up things and started imagining them they open up the door from the imagination of the heart to the mind where the soul rests and that's exactly what the Satan has been waiting for he could have been waiting for it all day he could have been waiting for it all week and in some cases he could have been waiting for it all year for you to finally give him and his evil wife access to your mind because that is where your connection to rests that's where the KES Kim is the tries to cleave on to your mind to get access to your mind to your brain to where your soul is because that's where you connect to and if he can damage that he could damage your connection with theem this is what's called the [Music] mishes this is the altar of the Holiness this is you the body the flesh is not you what's you what's in here that that's in here the moment you allow your imagination to run wild and think about all types of inappropriate things because you're watching movies or you're watching commercials or you're watching the news or you're watching uh people at your job or people on the street or a billboard or something on the Internet whatever other filth ran across your line of sight and you did not stop looking at it as soon as you saw it instead you looked at it further you now have given it access to the imagination and within a few seconds that accident turns into a mistake because it opened up a door from the imagination of your heart into the door to your soul in your mind you just gave the access to The KES Kim and that's why the page 29b say says the thoughts of sin are worse than the sin and there comes the rambam in to explain how could the thoughts of the sin be worse than the sin itself it's because the sin is completed and then the thoughts of it are no longer part of your life you're finished but the thoughts that a person has in their mind they could literally continue far longer than the actual sin the act itself you could literally think about the sin for hours for days for months for years and in fact that thought in itself lead you to more sins than the real act itself but what makes it even worse says the ramban in m is that when you damage the mind you're damaging the place of Holiness the Mish that you have where it's your connection between you and and no one else when you damage your mind you're damaging that connection you're damaging your relationship with the King of Kings and the more a person realizes what's at hand what's at stake the more person will be inclined to make the right decisions whether male or female some may be surprised but the reality is that we get quite a few messages and outcries for help and guidance from women like we do for men for this particular issue many women reach out with anonymous emails sometimes with real emails or text messages whatever it is asking for help because of their addiction to immorality this is not just a male only problem like many people think ignorantly and this we've known for years we've discussed many times a filthy mind is a filthy mind no matter what age no matter what gender and we see it in the world we live in today of how they're literally trying to manipulate reality to fit their demented agenda of immorality but for a Jew that wants to attain Holiness that wants to do the right thing it is critical for you to know that it is impossible for you to ever achieve any level of Holiness without protecting your eyes you can be learning in Yeshiva learning in a even the rabbi if you are not protecting your eyes you're not attaining Holiness for yourself but rather all of the Holiness that you're getting from learning Torah feeds the feeds the says the Z meaning that all of the hard work that you're doing learning Torah instead of it going into your account to make you stronger if you're not protecting your eyes if as soon as you finish Yesa you went and you looked at things that are inappropriate which led to horrible actions that learning goes and empowers the and I've had rabbis and and and all types of people reach out asking for help and we've helped quite a few people over the years we've succeeded with countless of them but there are certain people that don't want to help themselves they think that they can delve into both parts of the world they could learn tah but then once in a while they could look at things that are inappropriate if you're not protecting your eyes you're not protecting your heart and and certainly you're not protecting your soul because as soon as you allow your heart to imagine all of these provocative things whether it be with male female animals Birds doesn't make a difference the moment you allow yourself to look at these things that's it you've opened up the back door to the to enter whenever she pleases her and her husband one of the ways that you can tell for yourself not for anybody else don't look at people and assume this is the reason why always look at yourself first unfortunately many people sometimes will learn something and start thinking of all the people that are guilty instead of themselves rule of thumb if AEM made sure that you're listening to it out of all the things that you could be listening to at this moment you're listening to it that's because it affects you not somebody else it may affect somebody else also but it certainly affects you and one of the ways that you can tell that the mind of a person is in the best case scenario damaged in the worst case scenario corrupted altogether is how much kavana they have in their prayers and in their MIT how excited they are to learn tah to fulfill mitv to celebrate Shabbat the holidays to givea all of these things are not necessarily all because of good or bad character traits many times a person damages a part of their sh they didn't realize that they even damaged it because what people don't realize is that there are certain parts of the evil inclination that you're not even aware you have until you awaken it this is what the T Kat is trying to tell us here that if a person accidentally sees something something indecent God forbid such as animals or birds meeting like a person thinks of this like why would that even turn me on why would that even cause me to do anything inappropriate exactly a normal person does not think inappropriate thoughts until he sees something like that meaning there is an evil inclination within you that you're not even aware you have until you turn it on until you saw that you know you never desired it you never thought about it you never cared about it it never LED you to think about something else whether it be with this or with something else and that's one of the things people are not aware of when the stages say something they're telling you about things that you may not be aware of there are certain parts of the evil inclination that you have that you will only find out either through the books or when it's too late a wise person learns from the books and does not allow themselves to wait until it's too late but even if a person learned the the hard way they can still fix it but if a person finds themselves questioning why is AEM even showing me this I'm not looking at things inappropriately on purpose maybe on accident here and there well check yourself when you're doing mitv are you as excited for rosashana as some people are for the non-jewish holidays they're not even allowed to celebrate like Thanksgiving and Halloween are you as excited about about fasting on yumo as you are about going to work are you as excited about Shabbat as you are about a business deal in fact are you as excited about praying as you are about a business meaning that could land you a million dollars or more if you're not that means that although you may be good and nice and wonderful and charitable all types of other things that means that there is a certain amount of potential within your n that is not being utilized because something has damaged it and that's why the prophet Isaiah says in the name of AOS in chapter 43 verse 23 be is but you did not call out to me oh yov for you grew wary of me oh Israel here the prophet says in the name of asem there are times that a person prays but instead of it praying and being as excited or even more excited about it as they are about a business meeting meeting in fact they find themselves eager to finish praying eager to finish this prayer so they could go back to the business so they go back to sports so they go back to games they could go back to doing nothing but if it was a business meeting the only time that they're ever upset as if it's over why is that because sometimes a person has damaged a part of his soul a part of her soul in a way they don't even realize where they're not as eager to do the mitv they're not as eager to serve hem they're not as eager to pray to hm they're not as eager to talk to hem they're not as eager to give to publicize Torah to help eat to help learn Tor they're more eager to sell Pharmaceuticals to buy dresses to buy a car to buy a second house to fix their kitchen they're more eager to do those things there's a reason for that and the reason is there's a damage to the soul that you're not aware of and that damage to the soul started with the eyes looking at something that was forbidden looking for something that was not for you allowing your mind to delve into it damaging the the connection to a in such a fashion that you don't even realize it's damaged until it was time to givea for the high holidays instead of giving a thousand or 5,000 or 10,000 like you could afford you gave $100 or you gave 50 or perhaps you didn't give it all because you figured listen I gave enough already during the year or when a Time came to learn Torah you didn't really feel like learning today so you just decided you know what I'll just skip today and tomorrow and the week and next week and perhaps even next year it wasn't as important as the business meeting as it wasn't as important as the politics if I ask you what's the most recent story you've learned in the gar what's the most recent sugya you've gone through you're not going to remember what death are you holding on no clue what's this week's Paras you're going to look at your phone to make sure you're right but if I ask you anything about politics or sports or or or or what's happening in the stock market right away that information clicks right away why it was it's not only because you are more inclined to connect to the physical world you live in the materialism but it's also because there's a certain part of the Nisha that was damaged because of not watching your eyes and that could all be fixed that could all be fixed in fact when a person understands what's expected for them in sh they'll understand that not only it can be fixed but it must be fixed because a is telling us if when you're praying you feel like it's a burden then you're not praying to me you aren't calling out to me oh Yakov because you were weary it was like a you were holding a burden as if you're helping me with your prayers as if I need you oh is if it's a burden it's not the Torah if it's a burden it's not AEM it's something else when a person understands how beautiful the opportunity is for us to serve a not only is it no longer a burden they become more excited for it than anything else they prioritize it over everything else but until a person cleans their mind it's not even possible to see that perspective meaning so long as as a person's mind is full of junk it's not possible for them to understand the words that are coming out of my mouth that you should be excited to serve Hashem because the average person says I'll do it but if I have to I just don't want to get punished that's what the rambam was talking about when he said the lowest level of serving Hashem is people that serve hem only because they're afraid of punishment it wasn't because you know punishment is a you know thinking of punishment is a bad thing but if the only reason you're serving hasem is because you'll do it just because you don't want to get punished that's obviously not an ideal situation it's still better than not doing anything but it's certainly not ideal it's certainly not where you should be where should we be says the C in in p v six each day shall be like new to you new to your eyes just like Hashem renews the world each day meaning where we're supposed to be is that every time we look at the Torah even if we've read this Paras every year for the last 30 years 40 years each time we look at the even if we've read this D 50 times every time we look at the mitvah even if we've been celebrating this holiday for the last 50 years every time we wash our hands even though we've been doing it every single day for 30 40 years every single time we do a for something to eat even though we've blessed a million times should be as if it's brand new as if it was just created just like a recreates the creation every day without thinking ah come on I already did this yesterday I've been doing this for so many years already every day create create the sky create the heavens create the people create the ground create the trees create everything every day he's creating everything he's letting everything live all of the atoms continue spinning spinning spinning in order for the creation it's constantly recreating creation without saying I already did this maybe I should just stop for one day recreates everything every single day every single day he gives us another opportunity to serve him to do what we're supposed to do to do what's good for us the cly says this is really the way we're supposed to behave with the MIT every time we look at aem's every time we look at Shabbat we don't act like the Christian New Testament that says Yos thinks he's above the Shabbat or above theom rather we say thank you for giving us the Shabbat where even though it's only Sunday I'm already looking forward to the Shabbat even though I haven't eaten yet I'm looking forward to eat just so I can make a blessing even though kanuka is a month away I'm already preparing for it now a person should literally have their life involved with MIT second after second and everything else just that they have to do whether it's to make a living or whatever it is they have to do they have to do it but they have to also find a way to connect the connect to everything and the more you actually think about what you're doing and while you're doing it the easier it becomes but if you still have a damage in that as a result of not protecting your eyes you're always going to limit your joy it's like someone has certain nerves in parts of their body turned off if those parts if those nerves in that part of the body are turned off that means they're not going to sense certain things they're not going to enjoy certain things they're not going to know if something dangerous is happening one of the most dangerous cases that a person could ever have is if they don't have the ability to feel to feel pain there's certain cases where unfortunately people were had these conditions where literally they were burning without even realizing it so imagine a situation where a person has the greatest thing in the world in front of them but they're missing the sensors to never enjoy this thing this is what happens to the Mind as a result of looking at things that you're not allowed to look at at immorality at perversion at pornography at filth that the world is full of the first look that's an accident says R you could save yourself from how look away and see the verse from the book of Deuteronomy chapter 15: but if you allow yourself to continue looking in fact even worse you look for it don't be surprised if every prayer and every Mitzvah that you do feels like a burden feels like a thousand tons on your shoulders where you can't wait to finish your prayer you can't wait to finish your study you can't wait for Shabbat to finish you can't wait for the holiday to finish you can't wait to do anything but what the Tora says that's because there's a certain part of the N that's damaged and the way to fix it is protecting your eyes now a person that sinned with his eyes could prepare these Sins Not only by protecting them and not looking but also by crying over her sins says the in sh 15 I'm sorry in the first sh in section 15 that a person who sinned with his eyes can repair them by crying over his sins as it's written in t 119 ver 136 rivers of water flowed from my eyes because they did not keep your Torah the verse does not say because I did not keep your Torah rather it says because my eyes did not keep the Torah meaning that if a person uses these eyes that sinned to cry that in itself is a measure for measure fix for violating the Torah by looking at things that are inappropriate by not guarding your eyes also the chapter 3 section 11 says that the difficulty that a person experiences in guarding their eyes is considered like as if they're fasting certainly you just cannot replace the fast that a Jew is obligated to do on yum or on but the point is is that if a person has to do protecting your eyes is even more important than tun itself why because if you're doing a tun but you're still looking at filth it's not going to help you the in section 4 160 he writes the follows as follows the sin of the youth meaning he's talking about wasting seed the sin of Youth which is the most heinous crime in the Torah and don't think that he was alone saying this this is actually what the calls wasting seed the worst sin in the Torah the sin of Youth which is the most heinous crime in the Torah is the cause of all Jewish suffering and of all the harsh decrees that we face this is is telling it simply if you have a rabbi or somebody in your community tells you no these issues shouldn't be talked about in public they have to deal with after they finish this life why is telling us not only is this something that we have to deal with we have to learn about but it literally is the cause of all the suffering we have as individuals and as a nation and he's not alone this is we've brought you hundreds and hundreds of sources over the years from the zor from the from from everywhere that say the same thing but the point is that this is a recent G that says the Sin of the youth is the most heinous crime in the Torah and is the cause of all Jewish suffering and of all the harsh decrees that we Face furthermore all the ups and downs a person experiences in life are based on one's level of spiritual Purity is this sin starts soft sweet but ends in bitterness leading to depression and dissatisfaction which Robs a person of the joy in life on the other hand covering the the guarding the uh Covenant guarding one's eyes not touching that which is prohibits and avoiding forbidden newspapers or books brings happiness confidence and joy in your life first furthermore the gates of Tor and fear of God open for him [Music] here tells us clear and simple you want any level of Kusa in your life you have to protect your eyes you want to have you have to protect your eyes you want to have joy in your life happiness in your marriage with your kids protect your eyes you want to have a relationship with a protect your eyes in so many words without a person is literally self-destructing both this world and the next as the talmud says if a person avoid sinning and overcomes his evil inclination two or three times then the Holy One himself will guard this person from then on as the verse says in the Book of Job 33:29 behold behold God does all these things twice or Thrice with a man meaning this SE is is telling us that after you've overcome this obstacle on your own two or three times hhm will start helping you overcome it but not until you help yourself and for those of you that are still looking forward to Bringing more children to the world or you have young ones and you want them to be good ones too protecting your eyes not only has an impact but has literally a direct connection to what kind of kids you're going to have says the Imes in the name of RAB a father who guards his eyes will Merit raising his children without suffering he will Merit healthy and successful children here you're getting a from for what for helping yourself for helping yourself this was the secret that made abuu in last week's par we saw how Abu distinguished himself from every person that ever lived and until this day is benefits from it if a person wants to have the benefit of being connected to abah ainu they must protect their breit they must protect their breit which means they must protect their eyes is telling us even if you're already on the right path never sleep on the and think that you're done because he's going to come back as often as possible and be as annoying as possible looking for you to have your guard down whether it's from someone at work in school wherever and that's why theat is telling us that even if you're in a situation where you already at a point you're not doing it electively you're not doing it intentionally you still have to continuously provide your protection and nourishment the nourishment comes from learning more Tora including M about this topic nourishment includes increasing your nourishment means doing more helping more of do as the says that one that helps others do CH is specifically doing a favor for himself about this particular sin sending people the lectures about tunit or donating to the tun campaign that we have t that live and doing your own t these things directly impact your spiritual status because you're helping other people do Chua but again if you're going to continue looking at things that are inappropriate you're literally throwing all of the blessings that hashm is giving you out of the window so theat is telling us that even if you're at a point where you're no longer throwing things out of the window you're protecting you're working hard you still have to know that the is also working hard and he's going to try to bring you all types of things that unless you learn of what's allowed and what's forbidden you're going to think it's not a big deal what's the big deal of uh seeing somebody uh different couple hugging or kissing what's the different what's a what's a big deal of holding my wife's s in public what's the big deal of looking at animals doing what it is that they do what's the big deal the big deal is that that's forbidden that's the big deal and anytime a person does something that the toora forbids it damages the soul and this means that a person needs to always guard themselves because their Nama is on the line if you guard yourself like your Nish is on the line You'll succeed if you guard yourself just because you know it's a good thing to do or you should or because you heard that it's uh you know it's good it's not going to be enough maybe it'll impact you for a day two days but it won't be enough so a person has to know the is going to wait for you a day a week a month a year five years as long as he has to to try to finally get the person and Shalom you let him do that it all starts with protecting your eyes if you see that your prayer is weak your Mitzvah observance is weak or even if you're doing the mitvah you're not really feeling the enjoyment of it that means that you have to fix something fix your eyes is the first thing you can start with it's hard but it's easy it's hard to do because it's something you have to do constantly but it's easy because you know how to do it simply don't look at what's not allowed you don't have to learn any special skills now many times people ask me about filters the number one filter is having fear of Heaven having fear of his majesty having fear of a disconnect from Hashem certainly there are filters in the market I've heard mixed reviews about different ones we're also working on one as an organization which will be able to offer you guys in the future but even after we offer if a person does not have if person does not have fear of Heaven no filter in the world is going to help them whereas if a person does have certainly a filter can help them but the truth is if a person does everything that the sages teach they're going to have a filter on every part of their soul by default because their mind is going to L be on they're not going to have time to sin that's what re mikos said it's not only that he doesn't want his to sin he doesn't want them to have time to sin he want them to be learning T all day doing doing that's really where a person should get themselves to constantly be involved in MIT even if you're at work even if you're with the family even if you with kids look for opportunities to connect everything to MIT and if you really do that you'll be able to succeed in protecting your n by protecting your eyes and if you're protecting your eyes certainly many blessings will follow thank you very much for learning with me glad to learn with everyone again we'll learn again later this week reminder for everyone to download and try the new app that we have ai Rabbi those that have tried it and subscribed literally tell me it's the greatest thing they've ever seen it's a gift to the Jewish people it's something they've couldn't even imagine available to the world you could just simply see the reviews out there the reviews in the App Store the reviews on uh on online people that have downloaded this app literally love it as as if it's the greatest gift they got highly recommend it you could also use it with your WhatsApp point is is that it's a uh something that is a must have for people that live a Torah lifestyle or want to live a Tor lifestyle because you'll have questions and you're not going to necessarily always have access to the books that you need or even know which book you actually need you go to this thing you ask it a question regardless of what the question is and I'll give you an answer whether it's with a vocal answer or written answer based on sources real sources reliable sources and uh help you in your day-to-day life thank you very much for learning with us anyone that wants to download the app it's AI Rabbi or air ri.org in the App Store I'm sure it's going to be on the screen as well and we'll learn again later this week call to we are meant to be a light unto the Nations not to follow their misguided practices remember every Jew has to remember that he's a Jew and she's a Jew we don't celebrate non-jewish holidays even if they seem harmless it's a z disrespect to the Torah and could lead to Chul Hashem desecration of God's name stick to our holy Torah and our own holidays that's the path of a true Jew