The Library

''Vayechi yaakov be'eretz mitzrayim" Yaakov avinu found a way to live in Mitzrayim. After years of 'seeking to live in tranquility' (see Rashi at the beginning of Vayeshev), he finally realized that life isn't supposed to be perfect. It's not if only x,y,z happens that I ...

'And it was in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth (day) of the month, that Nebuchadnetzar, King of Babylon came, he and all his hosts, upon Yerushalayim, and he encamped upon it and built forts around it. And the city came under siege till the e...

Once upon a time, my wife convinced me of something that came as a bit of a shock. I always thought that what she doesn't know won't hurt her. Well, OK, I always knew it was a bad idea for me to 'go off' and do whatever... and that it'd be a very bad for her to find out a...

I referred a woman (whose husband is suffering from porn addiction) to your website. Here's her response: Thank you for being available and helping me out when I thought I'd never smile again. The website is huge. My husband and I are totally using it. My husband will als...

I learned a beautiful thing in R' Yitzchak Ginsburg's "Living in Divine Space": He says that the Baal Shem Tov taught us that we mustn't let humility prevent us from serving Hashem. However unworthy we may feel we are, if we approach serving Hashem with such feelings, we'...

I came across your website and I think you are doing a great Chesed to all of Klal Yisrael. This is a very important issue. There is a secular website which offers a training course on how to deal with pornography addiction. It is actually an online course and costs about...

Struggler: As you probably know, there is a woman from before I became a ba'al Teshuvah who is constantly available to me. I have had periods of being able to stay away and not have urges, but lately, I've gotten into the other kind of phase, the kind where I look at wome...

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.

Rabbi Abba taught: "Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O valorous one; thy glory and thy majesty," (Tehillim, 45:4.) The main point of the matter, is that G-d has given the sign of the holy Brit, and stamped it upon men for them to guard it, and not blemish it - it being the...

Someone wrote us: I made a promise to HASHEM that I will not be pogem habris this week, but I broke it twice. I feel really bad, and I'm afraid that I will do it more times. What should I do? GYE Responds: Shavuos don't usually work very well in addictions - if the shavu...

The differences between the average sweet yid who occasionally looks at porn and masturbates when he wants to (and then regrets it), and the sweet suffering yid who is an addict, is that the addict repetitively uses the schmutz, is obsessed with it, and masturbates even w...

Do not ask the Lord to guide your footsteps if you are not willing to move your feet.

I just got an "innocent" commercial e-mail which contained a picture that is just the type of thing that I find very triggering. If I didn't act fast, my entire sobriety would be at risk of collapse. Boruch Hashem, I was able to apply the three second rule (actually, qu...

The 12 step program, specifically step 5 (addressing my list of fears), really helped me overcome procrastination. I was holding myself back from doing so many things that I knew I should be doing. But after the chevra on Duvid Chaim's call helped me let go of my fears, I...

Ahron wrote: Help - I just started to look at shmutz and by some miracle, I was disgusted by it.... I think I'm going to take a nap. I gotta get away! Yesterday's chizuk is helping me now I think. DesperateJew responds: Ahron, you did well. You caught yourself, and stopp...

As her six-year struggle with cancer wound down to its bitter end, Elizabeth Edwards wrote on her internet blog: "The days of our lives, for all of us, are numbered. We know that. And yes, there are certainly times when we aren't able to muster as much strength and patien...

Someone who had a fall and was depressed wrote to Elya: Some people on GYE have been in recovery for years and yet they still say 'I'm weak'. This gets me depressed. If they're weak, what chance do I have? I expect someone in recovery for years to say "I'm strong" not "I'...

I just wanted to share some Chizuk I found over Shabbos in Nesivos Shalom (Beraishis pg 213-14, Inyan Yaakov and Eisav). In Avodas Hashem we need recognize the severity of Chet, and how far away Chet removes us from HKB"H. One should recognize that he's trading in the clo...