Why Lose Out | Rabbi David Ashear

We know everything that happens in this world is from Hashem. The Eretz Tzvi writes, Every pleasure that a person is able to get in this world is determined by Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And he says, if a person takes a forbidden pleasure, that means that that pleasure or that amount of pleasure was destined for him, but now that he took it in a forbidden way, Hashem has to take away the pleasure he was going to give him in a permissible way. We never gain from taking something that's אסור. אדרבה! If we would have got it in a permissible way, it would have been so much better. And therefore, a person should think when he has a Nisayon, Should I look now? Yeah, it'll be pleasurable for a moment, but why would I want to lose out on the pleasure that Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants to give me? When he gives it to me, it's a much better pleasure. And we don't only get rewarded in Olam Haba for this Mitzvah. Of course, the rewards in the next world are unimaginable. But it is brought down by the Lev Shome’a, he says, someone who guards his eyes is rewarded in this world and that he's protected from the Ayin Hara. He brings a proof from the Gemara in Masechet Berachot that says, Yosef HaTzaddik was above the Ayin Hara, he was עולה עין. And he said, one of the reasons of that was because Yosef guarded his eyes. What would people not do to be protected? Protect themselves, protect their families? Here we have a Segula, a wonderous Segula. Every time you guard your eyes, a person is going to get more protection in this world.