What Will Our Children See? | Rabbi Avrohom Eisen

A story happened, A woman used to take a 2-year-old to the beach, swimming, and the father decided to ask the Chazon Ish if you're allowed to do that. Chazon Ish said, If you want your child to be successful in Torah, the Torah should stick with him, that is not the right way of doing it, because all the forbidden sights that the child sees stay with him. The story goes that all the eight kids that were born after this child never went to a beach, and they all merited to be great Torah scholars in Bnei Brak. The child that did go to the beach stayed an observant Jew but did not become a great Torah scholar like the rest of his siblings. Another story, A father in Williamsburg, a yungerman, made Bar Mitzvah, and he told his son: I'm giving you a beautiful Bar Mitzvah present. I will fly with you, together with mommy, to the holy Gadol and halachic authority, R’ Shmuel Halevi Wosner of blessed memory. A week before the Bar Mitzvah, the father gets a phone call from R’ Wosner. I don't want you to come with your son to Eretz Yisroel. But I already bought the tickets. It cost me over $2,000. What am I going to do with them? R’ Wosner said, To bring your child on a plane and go through the airport back and forth, all the forbidden sights that this child is going to see is not worth it bringing him to Israel for me to put Tefillin on him and give him my blessings in Eretz Yisroel. So the father said: What should I do with the tickets? He said: Put them in a frame and write, We listened to the Rav and we didn't go to Eretz Yisroel, to watch our eyes, they should stay holy. This is the strongest present that this child ever gets from his father, hearing words of Mussar about stuff that most parents don't discuss with their children. This is how we have to bring up children. We have to tell them what you are allowed to see, what you should see. You should look at righteous people. You should look at Gedolei Yisroel. I was by somebody in Panama, and I saw, a Sefardi Jew, he had pictures all over of Gedolei Yisroel, big Roshei Yeshivos, Rebbes, young, young Rebbes. I asked him, Do you know these Rebbeim? Why do you have all these pictures on your wall? He said: I don't want my kids to grow up only with their sports cards, with those pictures, this should be what they look up to. I want them to see Gedolei Yisroel. This is what we look up to. R’ Shach of blessed memory had in every room of his house a picture of R’ Akiva Eiger. In the dining room, he had two. If you look at Gedolei Yisroel, this is what you’re striving to grow up and to be. And if you look at Gedolei Yisroel, this brings holiness into your eyes. We should not only not look at forbidden things only because we know that this is, we're not allowed to, an exterior barrier. We are sons of Kings. We are children of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. We should feel that we are on a higher level. Not that we’re not allowed to look. We don't want to look. We are holy. You are holy, and Your Name is holy, and the holy ones praise You every day, Selah. All the Jews are considered holy and they are called Holy Ones. In the merit of observing the Mitzvos of the Torah, the Ribono shel Olam should give us all the wishes of our heart, and we should merit to have Nachas from our children, righteous Jewish children and future generations of Jews.