Pleasure Is Addictive

We know that pleasure is addictive. A person reminds himself of the pleasure that he once experienced, and he wants to relive it again and again. There’s something very deep in this: The nefesh is drawn to pleasure, and once it has experienced a pleasure, it is pulled to return to that source of pleasure over and over. And the more a person experiences pleasure, the more difficult it will be to untether himself from it.

But here the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh reveals to us that this principle doesn’t apply only to the pleasures of this world—but to anything that a person will consistently think about. He will connect with that entity with a very deep connection, and his mind won’t be able to cease thinking about it.