Don’t Bomb Your Brain

Translated by Rabbi Lazer Brody

Guarding eyes is not for the select pious few – it’s for everyone. The mind of a person who fails to guard his eyes is like a highly sensitive military installation that’s not guarded – any enemy or terrorist can walk right in and sabotage everything! What’s worse, so many people bomb their own brains! A person who enables anything to enter his eyes suffers from the Torah’s curse, “And you shall be crazy from the sights of your eyes that you will see” (Deuteronomy, Ch. 28). The Torah’s wording sounds odd and superfluous: why the apparent repetitiveness of, “the sights of your eyes” and “that you will see”? If you open your eyes, then you’ll see sights that will make you crazy. If you don’t open your eyes, you won’t see those and they won’t make you crazy.

My rabbi and teacher Rav Levi Yitzchak Binder of saintly and blessed memory used to say that if we could see the thoughts of an average person, we’d say that he is utterly insane. We’d see how he thinks about one thing, and his thoughts roam from place to place and from subject to subject, becoming entangled with one another in total chaos and clutter. Seeing the person’s lack of control over the mental mess strewn in his mind would make us all cry with pity. But the most pitiful thing about this person is his disconnection with Hashem.

Happy is the person whose thoughts are focused on Hashem and on His Torah.

Rabbi Yitzchak Sternhartz, the son of Rebbe Natan of Breslev, wrote his father frequent letters. Often, he’d lament what he called his tremendous spiritual downfalls and his distance from Hashem, complaining that such a life was not worth living. His righteous father would answer with letters full of encouragement: Don’t be discouraged! Look at your good points! Try your very best to be happy, no matter what! Rely on the tremendous power of Rebbe Nachman! These are only a tiny sample of the many words of spiritual fortification that Rebbe Natan would write his son in the collection of letters that has been since compiled and published under the name of “Healing Leaves”.

Anyone who sees the correspondence between Rebbe Natan and his son might receive the impression that Rabbi Yitzchak was the world’s worst sinner, drowning in a sea of iniquity. But that’s not so – Rabbi Yitzchak was a pious and holy individual; if his focus on Hashem would be sidetracked even for a moment, he’d feel like a sinner on a deep spiritual slide. He yearned to cling to Hashem always, and sought his father’s guidance and encouragement at every opportunity.

Each of us should ask daily, “Master of the World! Please have mercy on me. Help me guard my eyes; help me resist any temptation to open them when I shouldn’t.” A person who is used to seeking Hashem’s help will soon find out that he is capable of guarding his eyes anywhere. When a person prays, Hashem helps him wherever he goes. Even if he’s driving a car and he must keep his eyes on the road – with prayer, Hashem will protect him from unwholesome sights. Therefore, even walking the short distance home from school, from the bus stop, or from the synagogue after morning prayers, a person should seek Hashem’s help and pray, “Hashem, help me get home without seeing anything that I shouldn’t see. Help me cross the street safely, and help me see only what I need to see, and nothing more.” Anyone who prays in such a manner will arrive at his destination unblemished.

Everyone should pray and request: “Hashem, help me cling to you always. I don’t want anything from this world – I only want you! I want to remember you every moment, to think of you always. Every moment that I feel You’re with me is complete happiness. Merciful Father, bring me close to You. Help me guard my eyes anywhere, in any place where there’s a chance of seeing a woman.”

“Master of the World! Help me realize that my mind photographs everything I see, and help me guard my mind from any forbidden or unwholesome images. Have compassion on me and let me see only holiness, especially the holy letters of Torah. Help me cling to You. Help me guard my eyes and maintain a clean mind that’s a worthy receptacle for the knowledge of Torah…”

There’s no limit to the amount of prayer we must invest in seeking personal holiness and a clean brain. The investment is well worth the effort, for the rewards both in this world and in the next are beyond anyone’s imagination. We must plead to Hashem, asking him to help us avoid the pitfalls of false physical charm and vain bodily beauty, and to extinguish the fires of bodily lust that can consume a person’s soul. Our prayers should be daily and relentless, for the enemy – sexual lust – is a cunning, fierce and stubborn enemy, the evil inclination itself that never gives up. There’s no way of overcoming it without begging for Hashem’s help all the time. The rewards are great, especially peace of mind. Why peace? Without the lewd images in one’s mind, the brain isn’t being bombarded all the time with forbidden thoughts. The effort in guarding our eyes is well worth it.