What Should You do If You Are About To Sin?

0:35Get another book or a mefarshim like Rashi or Tosafot. If you don't have that, then go on my app or YouTube, type my name; the first lecture that comes up, press play. Or just join our WhatsApp group. Text message 917-468-2345—that's my personal number—and say, "Please add me to the WhatsApp group." I'm going to ask you a few questions to make sure you're not a missionary because many missionaries attack our groups, and I'm going to ask you your beliefs because I don't know who you are. I'm going to ask you five questions. You answer those five questions. I'm going to add you to the WhatsApp group. That WhatsApp group is simply a way for you to have a little bit of learning every day. I'm going to ask you your beliefs because I don't know who you are. I'm going to ask you five questions. You answer those five questions. I'm going to add you to the WhatsApp group. That WhatsApp group is simply a way for you to have a little bit of learning every day. because every day we post different short clips—5, 10, 15-minute clips—along with updates and these long shiurim in that group. This pretty much means that all you need to do is go to that WhatsApp group. You don't even need to go to YouTube or anywhere else. Just go to that group and press play on the first lecture you see. Don't think, "Oh, am I interested or not interested?" You already have the Yetzer Hara; there's not enough time to think. Just imagine the Malach HaMavet standing with an axe above your neck.

1:44You let it keep going; eventually, it's going to fall through. You're going to fall. So just press play, even if you saw it already. Just press play. Get your mind out of the dump as soon as possible. Treat it as if it's pikuach nefesh. As soon as you're thinking inappropriate thoughts, treat it as if it's pikuach nefesh, meaning a life risk, because it really is. Your neshama is at risk. If you're not going to my shiur or engaging with some sefer Torah, for sure you're going somewhere else. And it's not going to be a good place. So press play as soon as possible. If you pressed play, you read the book, and it still didn't work, say Shema Yisrael out loud. Ask Hashem for mercy. Say the whole Pasuk: "Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad." You're allowed to say that Pasuk as many times as you want. It's a Pasuk in the Torah. Ask HaKadosh Baruch Hu for help, ask Him for mercy to soften your Yetzer Hara, to get the Yetzer Hara away. If that doesn't work, then...

2:44Go back to YouTube. Press your own oven. Gehinnom. Press play. Why? It'll teach you about Gehinnom. Once you learn about Gehinnom, I promise you, you're not going to want to sin ever again. Why? You're going to learn what happens. But don't start at the beginning. The beginning is a little boring. I don't talk about the real details there. Go straight to about an hour into it, or even two hours in. Fast forward two hours. Definitely after two hours, it gets really intense. Go over there. I promise you, you're not going to want to sin. You're not going to want to sin. But that's sin, Rabotai. That's what the Gemara says: learn about, and think about, the day you're going to die. Why? Once we think about the day we're going to die, we're going to see HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and we're going to have to pay the bill for all these things. Who wants to sin anymore? That's the only way to get the Yetzer Hara out of your mind. It's the only way. It's a, this is the instruction from the Torah. But remember, the only reason the Yetzer Hara is attacking you as often as he's attacking you specifically with the issues of znut, immorality, and things of that nature, is because you don't have enough Torah already in you. And the Rambam writes in Halakhot De'ot...

3:51He says the only person that sins through wasting seed and promiscuity is simply somebody with an empty mind. What does he mean by an empty mind? He has learned a few things and attended a few shiurim. He doesn't literally mean it's zero; he means it's not enough. You don't learn enough Torah. Because if you learned enough Torah, you'd constantly be thinking about it. Even though at work, you're working, you'd still start looking at things based on how they apply to Torah. A customer came and forgot $20.00. The question arises: Do I have to return it, or do I keep it? What do I say if the customer insists he overpaid? You can't just return it to him without thought; you need to assess the situation through the lens of Torah. Perhaps the customer is immodest. Should I still provide service, or do I excuse myself and let another attend to her? Your boss just paid you, but underpaid. Do you bring it up or let it go? Through constant learning, you reach a level where every mundane job connects to the Torah, prompting you to apply Torah's ethics and morality in every aspect of life. the shelf, do I have to return it, or do I have to return it? What do I say if a customer overpaid? You can't return it to them? No, return it to him. If the customer is immodest, do I still service her, or do I go somewhere else and let somebody else take the customer? Hey, uh, the boss just paid you, but he underpaid you. Do I tell him something? I tell him something. You know, constantly, if you learn enough to eventually connect everything in your world to everything in your world, you connect it, even if it's just a basic mundane job.

4:48Mundane job is a million different ways you connect everything to Torah. So the more Torah you have, the more full your mind is; the less time it has to sin. The more you're thinking about sinning, that means that you're missing Torah. That's what the Rambam says. It's an empty mind that does it. It's not an insult; it's a reality. And it's just an encouragement for us to learn. Somebody actually sent me a question today, and... And he said, listen, I'm having all of these anxieties, and I'm constantly anxious about things, and I have all these different thoughts. What should I do? So, what should I do about these thoughts? He's having all types of thoughts about gemara stuff, and he's constantly anxious. He's worried about whether he's going to pass the medical exam. He's worried about whether he's going to get a job one day. He's worried about stuff constantly. People are just anxious sometimes. So he asked me, what should I do? Do you answer him, though? First of all, we'll not just, you know, keep pushing through it. Second of all, just, you know, keep learning. So the more you learn... So you answered. You answered already the second one. So, why I asked the question? You answered already. I asked the question; you assumed that he learned. You assumed that he learned, right? Because he's asking a rabbi a question, that's assuming that he's learning the rabbi stuff. Well, after you know enough people, you realize that the more they learn, the fewer questions they have usually.

6:10Happens, so I asked, "How much time do you learn Torah every day?" He said, "Nothing." How do you expect not to be anxious, not to have these thoughts, if you're not learning Torah? The only cure there is. You have to learn Torah every day. You have to start learning. He was a smart guy, studying to become a doctor or something similar. With a brain like that, you should be learning at least a couple of hours a day. If that's too much to start with, then at least an hour a day—half an hour in the morning, half an hour at night. But you have to learn every day. It was difficult for him to realize that he needed to change, and he thought perhaps it was because he watched movies. I responded by saying I should have asked two questions, not one. I said, not only can you learn more than an hour a day, but how do you expect to not have these inappropriate thoughts if you're watching giluy arayot (inappropriate content), if you're watching disgusting stuff on the screen? Every single person on TV or the movie screen is immodest. How do you expect not to have filthy thoughts? How? What, you think it just goes away?

7:14You're going to watch a movie, you're going to watch the news, you're going to watch stuff on the internet. 100% you're going to have filthy, disgusting thoughts constantly. You are simply... You're watching a movie? That is spiritual cancer. You're simply, instead of taking the chemo, you're taking the cancer. That's who you are. You watch TV, you watch the news. All of these women that don't wear clothes and they're the broadcasters today? You watch the commercials during sports? You watch sports, chas v'shalom? You watch movies, chas v'shalom? We're not even discussing inappropriate movies, that type of stuff. I'm talking about just regular movies. You watch any movie that's in the theater right now, and 100% you're going to have filthy, disgusting thoughts in your head constantly. 100% you're never going to be able to do complete teshuva. 100% you're never going to be able to stop wasting seed. Why? How? How do you stop if you're constantly seeing somebody naked? How? How do you stop? What, are you a new human being? That's it. This means, as long as you're watching this filth, you'll have that stuff in your mind. Which means you have to be strict. Not only do you benefit by preserving yourself and not watching it, but you've also just found out that you have a lot more time than you thought. Instead of watching movies for two or three hours a day, now you can learn Torah for two or three hours a day.

8:41We're not even changing your schedule. All you're doing is instead of wasting your time on a movie, you spend your time and invest it in learning Torah. So you actually have more time. So that's the key. The key is to know that if we really dissect our own situations, we'll realize that we can all do a little bit more. All of us can do a little bit more. All of us can improve a little bit more. No one is telling you that you need to stop everything right now and start learning 20 hours a day, or 22 hours a day like the Gaon of Vilna. But you can still have a normal life; you can still work, you can still go to school, and you can still do all the basic things you need to do, but you need to do it alongside learning the Torah. If you're going to do it alongside learning the Torah, everything you do will be blessed. If you don't, and the Torah is going to become secondary to you, simply said, you're not gonna have the blessing that you want. Simply said, you're not going to have the blessing that you want. You're not going to be able to do what you need to do. And then, you're going to come to me, you know, at some future date, saying, "Rabbi, I just lost everything." Well, no, it's just that you've been losing everything gradually, and now Hashem's signs are getting, you know, worse and worse. Teshuva is not something that takes place overnight. It's something that you need to increase and improve on a day-to-day basis. But you have to be real with yourself.

10:01You have to know that there are certain things that you're going to do that are guaranteed failure, that are guaranteed spiritual cancer. All of these movies, these shows, these TV shows, these sports, all that stuff, it's all Tumah. It's all impurity. You're going to continue watching it. Listen, it's your life. You choose to do whatever you want with your life. But you're guaranteed that you're going to continue damaging your soul. So even if you learn Torah while watching movies, meaning, okay, you have two hours a day and you learn Torah. You're learning even the Shas. But you spend two hours a day watching movies or sports or whatever, It's still not going to work. You're still going to end up sinning. Why? Because even though you have a lot of holiness, you're learning Gemara, you're eventually going to finish the Shas, everything. The problem is, you learn two hours with pure Kedusha. Amazing. Just the best of the best. But then you put a bunch of filth on it. So yeah, there's Kedusha there. But it's repulsive. It's full of repugnant stuff.

11:02Understand that's the key. So yes, it's good, you know, to learn Torah for the sake of learning Torah. But don't ruin it. Don't ruin it. So you have to be strict with yourself. That's the only way. Anyone that tells you otherwise is simply lying to you, or they're just a sinner themselves. They're not willing to do teshuva. Many of these "rabbis" that constantly talk about sports and say, "Oh yeah, did you guys see the game last night?"—that's not a rabbi. It's not a robbery. I shouldn't even go to the key. I shouldn't pray with him. Why? If he's watching sports, he's not a rabbi. That's, that's, that's a what the even am this doing, the Greeks are doing, the people who have destroyed the Beit HaMikdash are doing. So again, playing sports is different than watching sports. You want to play sports for exercise during the week? No problem, as long as it is in a modest setting and you're not with a bunch of cheerleaders or anything like that. No problem. You want to exercise? No problem. You should even. To go follow sports, spend your time and energy, all this stuff, seeing the cheerleaders, seeing all the immodesty, the commercials, all that stuff, is simply ruining yourself. And you're not going to allow yourself to complete your teshuva. Yes.