The Victory Party | Rabbi Shlomo Landau

It was early Sunday afternoon. There’s a fellow sitting in his bungalow and he hears from the bungalow right next to him singing. It’s sounds like a father and a bunch of kids in there singing הקדוש ברוך הוא אנחנו אוהבים אותך וטהר ליבנו He's wondering, it’s just an interesting thing to be singing with your family on a Sunday afternoon. And he did what many people in bungalow colonies like doing, he snooped a little bit. And later that day, when the guy's nine-year-old came outside, he said to him, ‘What's going on in your bungalow? Was there a Siyum?’ ‘Was there a birthday party? What was happening exactly?’ He says, ‘No! No, no. No Siyum, no birthday party.’ ‘It was a victory party.’ ‘A victory party? Was there like a war?’ He says, ‘No.’ You know what happened to us? The whole summer, we've been asking our Tatti to take us boating, to rent a boat. And today we went to the boat rental place. But when we were like a half a mile away, there was a sign that said, ‘Boat Rental / Beach’ And all of a sudden, our Tatti said, If the beach is next to the boat rental, we can't go there. So we got a little bit closer and we saw that the beach was right next to the boat rental. And our Tatti looked, turned around and he said, ‘Kinderlach,’ the Yezter Hara wants us to rent the boat, but we're going to beat him. We're going to be victorious. We're not going to rent it, but we're going to do what Hashem wants us to do. Are you in? Are you on our side? And the kids said, ‘Yes.’ The father was so excited with what the kids had decided, that they were on board as well. He turned around and he went directly to a Kosher grocery store and hee bought ice cream and toppings and nosh and everything. The kids are like, ‘Tatti, what are you doing?’ He goes, ‘We're having a victory party.’ The little boy says, ‘That's what we were doing.’ We were singing, !הקדוש ברוך הוא, אנחנו אוהבים אותך Ribono shel Olam, we love you! וטהר לבנו לעובדך באמת Purify our hearts so we could serve you properly. You know, when it comes to Shemiras Einayim, for many of us, we view it as something that's for adults, maybe for Yeshiva Bochurim, for teenagers, but children, Shemiras Einayim, Is that even a thing? 100%. If in a refined and delicate and age-appropriate way, we're able to show our children that we're Shomer Einayim, that we're striving for Kedusha, that we want to be victorious, that we love the Ribono shel Olam, then when our children are in those same situations, when they're teenagers and when they're adults, They'll be Mechunach, they’ll be educated for the incredible Zechus of Shemiras Ha’einayim. And Im Yirtze Hashem, the Hatzlacha that they'll have will be a totally different level.