So we say to him: “What are you crying about medicine?! First let go! Let go of the thorns!” If you are constantly putting thorns in your mind, forget about it.
The Rasha with Peyos
So here’s a man, a frum man. He has peyos down to here, but he sits and reads, let’s say, newspapers. The ads alone tell you the story. Immorality is glorified. The whole newspaper reeks with vandalism. So the newspapers are a constant source of replenishment of all of the false ideas that he claims to want to root out. He’s still grabbing onto the thorns!
Or the radio. He listens to chachomim b’eineihem, dumbbells, giving their opinion about everything that doesn’t mean anything to his life. And it’s being dinned into his head. So who cares if you’re a Gemara melamed? Let’s say you’re a Gemara teacher in the yeshiva and you wear a nice long beard. Let’s say it would be such a case. There are some cases like that. You have to know inside you’re a rasha gamur. Even though outside you go to the mikveh and you seem to be a tzaddik, inside you are rotten through and through.
And inside, that’s what counts. לִיָךְנָה בְנִי לִבְּךּ – ‘My son, give Me your mind,’ Hashem says! (Mishlei 23:26) That’s what I want. עֵיָא בּרַ חֲמָנָא לִבָּא! Of all the things, your mind is what’s most precious to Me! בְּכָל לְבָבְךּ! With all your mind! If your mind is making excursions always into the camp of the enemy then even if your body is among the frummeh, you’re absent. You’re over there, not here. And in the Next World you’ll go there too.
The Magazine Mess
You have to cut loose from magazines. Those girls, those women, have to know that as long as they continue to read the magazines, there’s no use talking! They can outwardly be tzidkanyos; they can put on a cloth over their hair and they can daven long Shemoneh Esreis, but inwardly they're still receiving a supply from the sewer main that’s pouring sewage from the street into their minds!
They’re studying always the ‘great’ gentile ideals of extravagant living, of pursuing all kinds of pleasures and taavos, of shopping and entertainment and of the opposite of Torah living. If you’re reading gentile books, novels, romance, so the hashchasah, the corruption, enters your mind by way of your eyes.
The Grand Finale
Now before we finish, two more details and then we drop the subject. I know I’m stepping on toes so we’ll drop it soon. We’ll come back to it one day but for now just two more points.
Number one, the television. There are very many stupid Jews who invite a goy into their homes every night. Lo savi TV el beisecha. There’s a toeivah in his house on the table. There are not enough words to speak about this great evil that has inundated the homes. And any Jew who means business with yiddishkeit, must know, there’s no two ways about it. You must get rid of that infernal machine. It’s impossible to have a sanctuary, a Mishkan, a Beis Hamikdash with a television in it. There are no two ways about it. Either you have a Mikdash or you have a television. It cannot be both.
You can dodge the subject, but you have to know that that’s the plain truth – you’re in direct contact with all that’s wicked in the world. Even smart goyim are saying today that that machine is corrupting the youth. And it’s corrupting the minds of the adults too. I’m not saying this as an extremist. I’m saying this after years and years of observation.
Don’t tell me it’s wholesome. Don’t tell me it’s meaningless, it’s only a little mouse that’s talking, a cartoon. It’s much worse. And even if the goyim don’t say any filthy words or filthy ideas, it’s so so empty, so false, so twisted, so corrupt, so far away from what our ideals are, that it’s a ruination. The family sits around the table and they’re all being slaughtered together.
Delicate Family Affairs
Now, the last point before we drop the subject. And that is, don’t bring in irreligious relatives. Don’t bring in relatives who are not observant to your home! That’s what the Torah tells us about the fellow Jew whose mind was sullied by gentile ideas. וֹבֵלִ שְׁנַת הַיּוְ יָצָא בּ – He should go free and come back to the Jewish people, of course. But it doesn’t say anything about וְשָׁב אֶל מִשְׁפַּחְתּוֹ! Because to allow him into the home is a different story.
Now, it’s not an easy subject because many good people have siblings or parents that are not so good. It’s delicate. I understand that. So you’ll have to use subterfuge.
You can maintain a certain cordiality by telephone. You call them up frequently. You send them gifts. Always try to keep them happy by sending them small presents constantly; they should know you care about them. Maybe you, yourself, will visit them in order to prevent them from making frequent visits to your home.
Keep Them at Hands Length
But to invite them? That should be out of the question. As much as possible keep them out of your house because there’s no question that irreligious people will bring in their mannerisms. They’ll bring in their suggestions and attitudes.
A man in the shul told me once that his father-in-law comes to visit and he brings with him a portable television – they have such a thing; in the Sears-Roebuck catalog they sell portable televisions – so he shouldn’t miss the Yankee game. He brings his television into your Mikdash!
And if he doesn’t bring it, so he brings with him all the ideas that he acquired from the television and radio and newspapers he has at home. His mannerisms and attitudes and ideas are going to be impressed upon your children’s minds.
And it’s very difficult to have a Mikdash, a Mikdash of minds, if it’s going to be frequented by people of low caliber. And that’s the great lesson of our parshah. If even our own brother we have to be wary of because he sold himself to live among the gentiles, you understand already what it means about people who sold their minds out to the gentiles.
A Door, A Wall
The door of a Jewish home is not a swinging door, a revolving door, with ideas and attitudes coming in willy-nilly. That’s one of the things that the mezuzah tells us. When a mezuzah is put on the front door of a Jewish home, it proclaims, ‘Beyond here is an especial kind of place. It's a place of holy minds that have to be protected.’
Isn’t it a remarkable thing that people can live their lives without realizing that this is one of the things the mezuzah is saying? Some people kiss the mezuzah, but it’s not enough. As you pass in and out the purpose is to remind you of what’s inside the mezuzah: That this is a בַּיִת where Hashem is Echad. He’s the only One we’re interested in. וְדִבַּרְתָּ בָּם וְלֹא דְבָרִים אֲחֵרִים – We speak in Torah attitudes and nothing else. No gentile attitudes allowed! This is a בַּיִת where we love Hashem בְּכָל לְבָבְךּ. All of your mind, not some; not that you have a Jewish mind with some of a gentile mind too.
I’m giving you homework now. When you go home tonight practice that. Stop at the mezuzah for ten seconds and remind yourself about the things we spoke about here. And even though we’re still far away from that ideal of watching our minds perfectly, but at least we think about it and strive to come closer to that ideal. And little by little, it becomes more and more sincere. Little by little you become a person who understands that וֹצְאוֹת תִּי מִמֶּנּוּ כָּל מִשְׁמָר נְצֹר לִבְּךּ מִכָּל חַיִּים.
Have a Wonderful Shabbos
