Reb Yankele Galinsky zt'l tells: "When I was in Bialystok, I passed down a street where there is a hospital for the mentally insane. Two people called me over by my name. I went over to them, and they told me that they are normal, but others said they are insane, and ever since then, they have been interned in this place. They expressed how much they suffer in this hospital, which was not better than a prison, and it was all due to false claims.
Reb Yankele told them that Yosef HaTzaddik was also in prison for twelve years for absolutely no reason, but then he became the king of Mitzrayim.
They had a pleasant conversation for about an hour, and Reb Yankele Galinsky encouraged them to be strong with their emunah and bitachon. Reb Yankele was convinced that these two men were emotionally sound, and he told them that he would do whatever he could to help them get out of this hospital.
The men thanked him. One of them said, "Please free me as quickly as possible, because as long as I'm here, the geulah can't come."
Then he explained himself, "You see, I am Moshiach, and I need to save the Jewish people from galus, but I'm stuck here in prison."
The other person rebuked him, "How many times have I told you, Moshiach can only reveal himself when Hashem tells him to do so, and I never told you that you can reveal yourself."
Reb Yankele realized that they both were in the right place, after all. This is the meaning of the pasuk (Koheles 12:13) ה ַכֹּל דָּבָר סוֹף נִשְׁמָע, in the end, it was understood that they were in the right place.
Reb Yankele Galinsky explained that the yetzer hara is a וכסיל זקן מלך, an old, foolish king. He speaks ridiculous ideas. Even if initially, the yetzer hara seems to say clever words, words of wisdom, but you have to check what the דָּבָר סוֹף, final result is. If it is יְרָא הָא ֱלֹק ִים אֶת, fear of Heaven, then they are wise words. Otherwise, it is foolishness, and you are better off keeping far away from him.
This is the meaning of the pasuk: דָּבָר סוֹף הָאָדָם כָּל זֶה כִּי ש ְׁמוֹר מ ִצְוֹת ָיו וְאֶת יְרָא הָא ֱלֹק ִים אֶת נִשְׁמָע ה ַכֹּל, "The end of the matter, when all has been heard: fear Hashem, keep the mitzvos, for that is man's whole duty." Check the end. See whether the counsel leads to yiras Shamayim or not.
It states (Mishlei 17:12) כְּס ִיל וְאַל בְּא ִישׁ שׁ ַכּוּל דֹּב ׁפ ָּגוֹש בְּא ִוַּלְתּוֹ, "Better for a man to be confronted by a bear bereft of its cubs than by a fool in his foolishness." A bear that just lost its children is dangerous, but it is a greater danger to meet with a fool, someone who speaks ideas that can harm your yiras Shamayim.
A person on his deathbed was asked where he wanted to be buried. He replied, "I have one request. I don't want to be buried next to a person who had an iPhone in his lifetime."
The dead aren't using iPhones anymore. Kal v'chomer, one should avoid being near someone alive who has an iPhone. This could be compared to burying oneself alive.
For example, when riding a bus, don't sit next to someone who has an iPhone. There are too many stories of people who had a "one-time exposure" to the abominations shown on an iPhone and the like, and then they fell to the lowest levels, r'l.
It states (Mishlei 6:6) דְרָכ ֶיהָ רְאֵה עָצֵל נְמָלָה אֶל לֵ ךְ וַחֲכָם, "Go to the ant, you sluggard; see its ways and grow wise." We can explain that ants run around the ground collecting pieces of food, and when someone walks in the vicinity, they run and hide to protect their lives. They don't want to be trampled on. After the person passes, the ants come out again and they crawl about once again, until the next person comes, and they will run for safety again. Why don't the ants learn from the past, that it is dangerous to walk outside? They were almost trampled on in the past. Why do they keep coming out and risking their lives again?
We should learn from the ants' foolishness and be wiser than they are. We shouldn't go to a place where there is spiritual danger. In the past, you experienced the fall that came from not being cautious, so why don't you learn from the past to be careful now?
Avos (4:2) states, הָעֲבֵרָה מִן ַוּבוֹרֵח, we should run away from aveiros. Chosid Yaavatz explains that when there is a fire, one should run away from it because a fire can spread. This is how far one should run away from aveiros. This is the reason the expression ַוּבוֹרֵח is used. You don't just walk away from aveiros, you run away, like someone running for his life.
When there is a war, and one country fears it will be destroyed, that is when they fight their strongest and they take out their secret weapons. They refrained from using those weapons until now; they saved them for the most desperate moments. But here they know that if not now, it's never. If they don't fight with all their might, they are lost.
The Satan is the same. We are in the generation before Moshiach, and the Satan and his army become even stronger at this time. Weapons that they didn't use throughout galus are now being taken out, to capture Jewish souls, to prevent the geulah from arriving. Chazal (Succah 52a) state that the Satan will be slaughtered when Moshiach...
