You'll Get it All | Rabbi Alex Mizrahi

Before a person works on controlling their eyes, I think you need to ask yourself a question. What am I gaining by what I'm looking at? The Pasuk in Tehillim tells us, Praiseworthy is the person, the God-fearing person, that goes in the ways of Hashem. The work of your hand you should eat from and you'll be better off. Your wife will be like a grapevine within your home, and your children will be like olive branches, going around your table. The rabbis tell us: What is this Pasuk saying? That I'll have my wife in my home, I'll have my children and I'll eat from what I worked on. The rabbis tell us, On Rosh Hashanah, it's decreed what is going to happen to us that year. We get judged. Not only do we get judged whether we're going to live or die, not only do we get judged how much money we're going to make, we get judged on how much pleasure we're going to take from this world. I heard over in the name of the Steipler, When a person does a sin, don't think that anything good could come from a sin. You’d think that: Oh, I did the Aveira, I ate something not kosher. I know I did a sin, on one hand, but at least I got some pleasure of eating something I wouldn't have been allowed to eat. Says the Steipler: No, that's not how it works. He says: If a person goes and eats something not kosher, you know what happens? Come Friday night, when you're making the kosher roast, all of a sudden, the roast is going to burn. And it was pleasure that you would have been able to have, anyway, to take from this world, and it would have been given to you in a permissible fashion. Then now, Hashem comes in, He says: Oh, you took it in a forbidden way? That's it. I'm taking it away from the pleasure that you would have had in a permissible way. That's what it means, this Pasuk. The Pasuk says: Praiseworthy is the person that eats from his hand. He eats from what's permitted. Praiseworthy is the person that has his wife in his home. Praiseworthy is the person who has his children around his table like an olive branch. That all of the pleasure that you're going to have in your year, in your lifetime, can be found inside your home. All of the pleasure that you are going to have is going to be given to you in a permissible fashion. Why is it worth going and looking at the things that you're not allowed to look at? Why is it worth eating the things that you're not allowed to eat? Going and deriving pleasure from something that's ultimately forbidden? At least you’d say: if I could get something from it, maybe. But at the end of the day, according to this, you're not even getting anything from what you're doing. Rabbi Avigdor Miller says, You know how much Hashem loves us? Hashem created us to give us pleasure. You ask: Why did Hashem create mango? Why did Hashem create watermelon? Why did Hashem create these delicious-looking fruits? Some would say: You know, if He wanted us just to live, give us bread and water, maybe, milk and fish and cheese. Why do you need these delicious fruits? You know why? Because Hashem created a world, where He wants us to enjoy. And He wants us to enjoy in a physical sense. But when Hashem created us in a way to enjoy physically, He created the Torah with it. He says: All that physical pleasure, you're going to be given it through the Torah. You're going to be given it in a permissible way. You want to know how to controlling your eyes? The first thing to say is I'm not getting anything from it, anyway. Why is it even worth it to look?