The Secret Of Hanukah

In deference to readers who find my writings on jewish sexuality incongruous to their IsraelNN palettes, I am providing a link to this important article on our jewishsexuality.com website. For those brave souls who venture onward, let it simply be said that from a Kabbalistic point of view, the general national weakness that the Jewish People are experiencing today, with its cultural, military, and economic offshoots, stems from the very same source of spiritual pollution.  

Secret of the Oil

Thank You G-d for Taking Me Out of America

Driving through Jerusalem tonight on the way to the Kotel, I didn't see one Xmas decoration. Not one. "Thank G-d," I said out loud to the passengers in the car. "At this time of the year in America, a Jew is inundated with Xmas and all of the idol worship that surrounds it - on the street, in stores, in the newspaper, and on TV. You can't get away from it. If only for this, it is worth everything in the world to live in Israel. To live in the Holy Land. The Land of the Jews."

Secular Jewish Home in America

Let's face it. Living in America is like living in ancient Greece. It is a totally foreign culture. A Christian culture. A Jew who chooses to live in America (or England, France, Australia, South Africa, and the like) is saying, "I want to be a son of America, or a son of England or France. Judaism is just my religion. My nationality and identity is an American, or a Frenchman, or a subject of the queen." His head is filled with reindeers, Santas, and virgin marys.

In Love with the Diaspora

All I can say is "Thank G-d that I am a son of Israel, a Bnei Yisrael through and through."

"Thank G-d I am living where a Jew is meant to be."

"Thank G-d I am living in a place where there are only Hanukah decorations on the streets."

All I can say is "Thank you G-d for opening my eyes to see the truth. Thank you G-d for taking me out of America and bringing me to Your Land."

And as the Holiday of Lights approaches, I pray that G-d will lighten your eyes also, and let you see the darkness around you, and bestow upon you the miracle that He bestowed upon me by bringing me to His Holy Land where He wants all of His Jewish children to be. 

The Greatest Hanukah Gift

The star of this week’s Torah portion is Yosef, who is called “the Tzaddik” because he conquered his sexual passion.

I can hear your groans, “Here he goes again with his hysterical warnings.”

In response, allow me to quote the opening sentences of the classic book, “The Path of the Just,” written by the great Kabbalist, Rabbi Moshe Haim Luzzatto:

“I have written this work not to teach men what they do not know, but to remind them of what they already know and what is very evident to them. But to the extent that these matters are well known, and their truths revealed to all, so is forgetfulness in relation to them extremely prevalent.” 

Day after day, dressed in the most seductive outfits, the wife of Potiphar would approach the young Hebrew slave, Yosef, and beckon him to her quarters to lie with her. She would whisper immodest things in his ear. Yosef’s great test wasn’t just a onetime challenge. Egypt’s most beautiful woman kept after him for months on end, doing everything in her powers to cast her spell over him. On that fateful day when she threw herself at him with all of her charms, she made sure that she and Yosef were alone in the house. The only thing standing between Yosef and the forbidden act was his fear of G-d. His father and family were hundreds of miles away, he was in the prime of his strength, she was the most seductive woman in Egypt, and still he resisted.

What was his immediate reward? He was thrown into prison for years. What in heaven’s sake for? Rabbi Leon Levi answers: because in a moment of weakness, he thought about succumbing to temptation and actually lying with her, and Hashem punished him for that fleeting thought alone.

If Yosef was imprisoned and bound up in chains for that one little slip, what awaits Internet addicts like us for the times that we allow our eyes and thoughts to wander and view images we shouldn’t see?

In our time, the Internet is Potiphar’s wife. Every time we sit down at the computer, we are tested with the very same test as Yosef. Thousands of seductive women are just a quick click away. And who has the strength to resist?

Potifar's Wife

For us, Divine assistance comes in the form of an anti-porn filter. Thank G-d, there are many on the market. Many can be downloaded for free. In Israel, the new Rimon filter is highly recommended. So grave is the danger of Internet watching that many Torah authorities have ruled that Internet surfing without an anti-porn filter is strictly forbidden. Rabbi Leon Levi calls it the greatest spiritual danger of our time.  Viewing erotic pictures on the Internet, whether they be in ads, on the Yahoo home page, or in adult sites, cause a person to violate a long list of Torah commandments, including:

“You shall be holy, for I the L-rd your G-d am holy!”

“Thou shall not turn astray after your hearts and after your eyes which lead you astray.”  

“Therefore shall your camp be holy, that He see no unclean thing in you and turn away from you.”

“And you shall guard yourself from every evil thing.”

“Do not turn astray after their gods!”

“Thou shall not bring an abomination into your house.”

If you have children at home, and you haven’t taken measures to guard their viewing habits, then you are also violating the Biblical injunction "not to put a stumbling block in front of a blind man."

And if you insist that gazing at women is a harmless endeavor, and that you haven’t done anything at all, please be aware that the eyes are the windows of the soul, and that this seemingly “harmless endeavor” severely damages a person’s connection to G-d.

So if you haven’t installed a censoring filter on your computer, install one now. Let that be your gift to yourself and to your children on Hanukah.