A Universe of Sanity | Rabbi Meir Schiller

There is a famous vort from the Toras Chaim. The Toras Chaim is R’ Chaim Kosover, who some might say was the second Viznitzer Rebbe, but that was before Viznitz got to Viznitz. So the Toras Chaim was in Kosov, the son of the Ahavas Shalom, who was also in Kosov. So this is a pre-Viznitz Vizniter vort. Says the Gemara in Kiddushin, If the Disgusting One attacks you, Disgusting One means the Yetzer Hara, what do you do? Drag him to the Beis Hamidrash. If he is a stone, he will be melted. If he is metal, he will be smashed. In other words, you will be saved from this attack by the Yetzer Hara, if you drag him to the Beis Hamidrash. Asks the Toras Chaim a question, It says nothing what you should do once you get him to the Beis Hamidrash. Should you learn? What should you learn? It only says drag him to the Beis Hamidrash. That’s the whole point of the sages, Drag him to the Beis Hamidrash. To which the Toras Chaim answers as follows, You don't have to learn. Drag him to the Beis Hamidrash, sit there amongst Yidden, be in the atmosphere of pious Jews, and that on its own will smash the stone and melt the metal, that on its own. So coming to meet pious Jews, that, on its own, will provide you with the means to defeat the Yetzer Hara. So very often we wonder what can we possibly do to defeat the Yetzer Hara? Is the answer, Come and see pious Jews. Come amongst pious Jews, sit among them, laugh with them, be happy with them. And that in its own right, even before any sort of Torah learning, just to be around pious Jews, that will help to destroy, utterly destroy, perhaps, the Yetzer Hara. Some people think the major problem with media, with technology, is that we see things that are tempting and evil in various ways. I think the real problem is much deeper than that. The problem is you enter into an alternative world, an alternative universe, a universe of inverted values where what is good is bad, what is bad is good. What is happy is sad, what is sad is happy. And that is the cure which dragging the Yetzer Hara to the Beis Hamidrash is going to affect. It will bring you into a universe of non-inverted values. A universe of sanity, where good is good and bad is bad. So again, technology has many problems, but that distortion of what is good and what is bad, might be primary among them. So again, I speak to myself, not necessarily only to those who are watching that drag yourself to the Beis Hamidrash, sitting among Jews, and that in itself will help us defeat the Yetzer Hara.