Border Patrol

Everyone knows how important it is for a country to protect its borders. Here in Israel, our soldiers play a vital role with their incredible daily self-sacrifice of putting their lives on the line to ensure our safety. Hour after endless hour, each soldier on shift must be on maximum alert for any type of intrusion or attack. This means they cannot be distracted even for one little moment. A soldier on border patrol knows that most attempts to invade our borders are not obvious; our enemies know they’re being watched, so they do their best to avoid any set of eyes, both mechanical and human.

Imagine what would happen if a soldier decided to whip out his iPhone in the middle of his shift and check his Facebook page. There he is, standing at the border of Israel and Lebanon, with his guard completely down, and all of his attention is focused on what club his friends partied at last night. He quickly gets engaged in several conversations on Facebook and what’sapp. His laughter catches the attention of several other soldiers, and before long everyone is hanging out like a group of buddies instead of doing their life-saving jobs.

Watching him from a mountain cave in the distance is a terror cell who has been waiting for the perfect opportunity to infiltrate Israel’s borders. By the way the soldiers are gathering around, the terrorists realize that their guard is down and now is the time to act. They grab their machine guns and assault grenades and slide like cockroaches into the tunnel that leads from their cave to 30 feet from the border.

One terrorist slides his little telescope out of a small hole at the exit opening to make sure no one is looking his way. The coast is clear. All of the soldiers are completely distracted by social media and empty conversation. Before they realize what’s happening, four terrorists sneak out of the secret tunnel and slink like snakes right past the soldiers, armed with their deadly collection in order to do their “holy” work of killing innocent Israeli men, women, and children.

Of course the soldiers on border patrol would never dream of letting their guard down for even one moment. They are fully aware of the devastating potential consequences if they were to do so.

This story isn’t as unrealistic as it seems. As parents, we are charged with the responsibility of being on border patrol for our children. Unfortunately, many of us, even the observant ones, are too caught up in their social nonsense and chasing lives of empty materialism to even realize that they are failing in their mission.

These days, a child has access to every type of soul-corrupting perversion out there with the click of a button. Why should they be allowed unrestricted access online?? Why should they be allowed to watch TV shows with violence sex scenes that would have horrified parents even as recently as 10 years ago?? 

A few months ago, there was a shooting of a reporter and cameraman on live TV. Now, there are plenty of logistical reasons and evidence to point to the theory that the entire thing was staged, but let’s assume for argument’s sake that it was a real shooting.

The shooting happened during the morning news, at around 6:45 am. Many children are up this early, usually prancing around the house, trying to hide from their parents who are frantically trying to get everyone ready for school and work. Many parents have the TV on first thing in the morning, tuned in to the morning news. My parents and I had this lovely routine every morning! Yes, I fondly remember being yelled at to get dressed for the hundredth time while Good Morning America was playing on my parents’ bedroom TV.

I would bet that I wasn’t the only kid hiding under my parents’ bed, trying to catch a few moments of news that I couldn’t understand while my parents chased me down and made my lunch at the same time. Which makes me wonder – how many children might have been watching that morning news program when the shooter started firing? How many children now have images of a person being shot burned into their brains, against their will?

Whether the shooting was real or not, the effect it has is the same. Since children can’t differentiate between reality and fantasy in many ways, in their minds, the shooting was real. What a tragic event for a child to witness!

To me, the message is very clear. Hashem allowed such a crazy thing to happen on live TV to show all of the parents out there that they are killing their children by exposing them to such garbage.

As parents, it is our responsibility to do our best to protect our child’s mental and emotional health by patrolling their borders. It is our duty to make sure that no violent and sexual corrupting images steal their way into our children’s brains. But, are we even aware of our responsibilities?

Many parents with older children might despair and say it’s too late; the damage has been done. Rebbe Nachman disagrees! He tells us that it is never too late to make a fresh start! “There is no reason for despair in the world!” he emphatically tells us.

Here are a few tips for parents that genuinely want to protect their children from all unholy infiltrators: First, if you want your kids off Facebook, then you have to get off Facebook and social media. Second, if you want your kids to stop watching disgusting programming like MTV, then you have to stop watching your garbage programming as well. If you want your kids to re-orient their lives to more holy and spiritual pursuits, then you must do the same.

Are you getting the theme yet?

Rav Shalom Arush explains that a child’s soul is much more delicate and pure than an adult’s soul. Therefore, parents must retain as pure an environment as possible. If you want to do the right thing for your children, read The Garden of Education, Rav Arush’s monumental guide to healthy parenting.

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Feel free to send Racheli your questions, particularly in the areas of marriage, dating, child-rearing and women's role; write her at racheli@breslev.co.il