Dear GYE Family,

have a happy and a bright Chanukah!

The Slonimer Rebbe ZT"L says that a woman who was exposed to inappropriate or immodest images or sights in her life should gaze at the flames of the chanukia. They can erase these images from her memory completely. (One should specifically ask that the images should be erased).

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On a lighter note:

a woman goes to the post office to buy stamps for her Chanukah cards. She says to the clerk, "May I have 50 Chanukah stamps?"

The clerk says, "What denomination?"

"Oh my God," the woman says, "has it come to this? Give me 6 Orthodox, 12 Conservative, and 32 Reform."

May we merit that nothing but joy and lightness stays in our memory! And if depression lingers, the article below ("Depression in Sobriety") may be just the remedy.

With best wishes for continued sobriety,

Mottel

"I've been a member of GYE for over a year and a half. Recently, I have gotten married to my wonderful wife. Since I got married, I have been clean. I have a therapist and a GYE partner who I keep up with. I've read a lot about other people's success stories, and the common thing they share is that after a while of not using, they find joy, emotions, passions, interests, and love etc. I am currently over 7 months clean and still have depression (for which I take medicine), and I get into the escape mode a lot (I surf the news or just try to numb my existence). I'm feeling lost, what am I missing?"

One mom recently wrote:

“What can I do to ensure that our family standards are kept and that my child remains safe from inappropriate media content while attending a playdate?”

Even Dawn Hawkins, Sr. Vice President of the National Center on Child Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), told us that she struggles to know how to open up conversations about media standards with the parents of her kids’ friends and potential babysitters. She says:

The Midrash offers a parable in explaining the use of olive oil for the Menorah in the Temple: it is comparable to a king whose legions rebelled against him. However, one of his legions remained faithful and did not rebel. The king said, "From this legion that did not rebel, I will take for my rulers and governors." So did G-d say, "This olive brought light to the world in the time of Noah, as we see ‘the dove came…and it had an olive branch in its mouth’ (Vayikra Rabba 31:10)."

You really want to stop, but maybe that desire, as deep as it is, has not made it into the kishkes (maybe a parve kishke, but not into the fleishigeh kishke). I think the way to penetrate the fleishigeh kishkes is to dwell more on the physical threats of living with this lust. Maybe reading some of the stories about where lust has progressed for many of those here on GYE, how it's affected their family life, their wives, their children. Hit bottom while you're on top! But don't dwell TOO much on the negative. Think about those people who were at the bottom - so much lower than you and I - and have managed to put their lives back together and live clean and connected, to the world, and especially to HKB"H, whose loving embrace they've taken comfort in. HKB"H does Nissim, and He does them regularly for people who are absolutely ready to change. Ask people who have seen the Nissim in their lives.