Our World of Lies

The ongoing Hollywood scandals that shatter the myth of the rich and famous that Western society idolizes show that any departure from Torah is a departure from truth…

We are currently living in the World of Falsehood (Olam HaSheker). Here in the World of Falsehood, something can appear beautiful but is actually repulsive to Hashem. This contradiction only occurs in our temporary world.

Fashion magazines are a good example. The model on the cover of the magazine is violating the rules of modesty in Hashem’s Torah, yet she appears beautiful. With the help of the Evil Inclination, this contradiction becomes temporarily possible.

However, if we were to put on spiritual glasses that would allow us to view things from Hashem’s perspective, the model would appear disgusting. The stench coming from that magazine would make us nauseous. The “cover girl” would look so ugly, we would instinctively want to turn our heads away.

Those glasses are from the World of Truth. In the World of Truth, how something appears is consistent with Hashem’s will. The World of Truth lasts for eternity, while our current world lasts 120 years at most.

Eternity is hard for us to picture, so Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler zt”l has a very helpful parable to describe it. Imagine a beach with white, powdery sand that stretches as far as the eye can see, and much farther. Once in every 1,000 years, a bird swoops down, picks up one tiny speck of sand, carries it to the water and drops it in the ocean. How long would it take for the bird to transfer those trillions of specks of sand on the beach to the water? That is eternity.

So, back to our fashion magazine cover girl. She appears attractive while she is violating Hashem’s will and causing husbands across the country to gaze at her and lose appreciation for their wives. Yet fifty years from now, even in our world, she will not look so pretty. And when she dies, she will look absolutely repulsive and smell horrible. And she will be that way for eternity.

Now that we have an idea of what Purgatory looks like, let’s have a look at Heaven. Someone who dressed modestly during their stay in this temporary world is considered a hero in Heaven. So, imagine we have reached the end of our lives. We are hopefully now elderly and feeling satisfied. Our soul leaves our body and rises higher and higher until it enters a tunnel of sorts which deposits us into a grand, white room that is dazzling with Heavenly light.

Our ancestors come out to greet us with radiant smiles on their faces because we dedicated ourselves to dressing modestly and performing Hashem’s mitzvot while in this challenging generation.

We feel Hashem’s Divine Presence and His love enveloping us because He is so proud of how we stayed true to His Torah. This magnificent, wondrous feeling of closeness to Hashem is more intense than anything we have ever experienced, and our reward lasts for eternity.

Now, do we still feel jealous of how the magazine model looks, or do we pity her?

To give ourselves additional encouragement, let’s have a look at what some of the greatest Rabbis of the generations have to say about the wondrous virtue of modesty:

●“If we analyze the words of our Sages of blessed memory, we find that the attribute of modesty is an extremely praiseworthy trait.”    -The Chofetz Chaim, zt”l

●“…The ultimate distinction of a woman and her supreme greatness is her perfection in modesty.”    -The Maharal of Prague, zt”l

●“What Torah learning does for a man, modesty does for a woman.” -The Vilna Goan, zt”l and the Chazon Ish, zt”l

●“In the merit of modesty, her children’s stature will be elevated above all other people and her husband will be bestowed with blessings from above and below, with riches, children, and grandchildren.”    -The Holy Zohar

●“A woman who is modest will merit children who are on the level of Kohanim Gedolim (the High Priest in the Holy Temple).”  -Midrash Tanchumos Bamidbar 3

●“One improvement in the area of modesty is worth more than 1000 improvements in any other area of serving Hashem.”   –Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, zt”l

(Quotes taken from Oz V’Hadar Levusha, Daughters of Dignity, Geder Olam).

May we all merit to please Hashem with our beautiful deeds and see Moshiach arrive soon, amen!