In honor of the new baby and everyone's Kabalos, I want to reveal to you all one of the deepest secrets to winning this battle:

The moment a person decides that no matter how much it hurts or how bitter it is - he will do it anyway for Hashem's sake no matter what, and he is willing to suffer whatever pain it takes; an amazing thing happens then: It actually becomes EASY and SWEET!

This is the secret to true success in any spiritual feat, including Torah. Like it says: Zos Hatorah - Adam Ki Yamus Ba'Ohel. As soon as a person accepts upon himself the yoke of Torah to the point where he is ready and willing to suffer for it to the point of death - ZOS HATORAH; that is the Torah, and then he is Zoche to feel the true sweetness of Torah that by far exceeds any physical pleasure. But with Torah it is understandably harder to achieve this high madrega because it requires lots of doing and learning, such as getting up before dawn, going to sleep late, eating little and toiling day and night in Torah. This is indeed hard and requires a huge leap of faith before it starts to get truly sweet.

But when it comes to our struggle with this addiction, it is much easier. We don't have to do ANYTHING. We just have to STOP doing the bad things and accept upon ourselves that even if we feel like we are going to DIE if we don't give in, even if we feel such a deep void and depression that everything we do feels like eating "dirt" - still, we will not give in no matter what and we accept the challenge of this pain with JOY for Hashem's sake, then - and ONLY then - are we Zoche to feel the true sweetness and freedom from the Menuval once and for all forever!!

So take that leap of faith today, and accept upon yourself to succeed no matter how hard it is, and suddenly you will see that it gets easy and feels truly SWEET!

This post really touched me. 

I changed my name for a reason. Let's hope that it will become a "sof posuk".

I will b'n print it out, and maybe some others, and read it before I think that I am about to H'Y give in.

On another note:

This is something that has always driven me crazy. Are you saying, along with what others seem to imply, that the only eitzoh for this addiction and the only proper thing for anyone actually, is to be learining 15 hours a day?

Edited Later.

I just found the following in an article by Rabbi Asher Meir in "The "Jewish Ethicist" posted in JWR for today:

"... is that Jewish law acknowledges that setting some money aside for unexpected needs, within measure, can also be considered an essential expense. (Next week we will give an additional approach.) Here is an important source for this rule:

"The Shulchan Aruch (authoritative Code of Jewish law) states that eminent Torah scholars are exempt from many communal levies. Even if the Torah scholar has to work for a living and can't devote all his time to study, he is considered to be devoting all his free time to learning as long as he works only "enough for his livelihood, and not in order to enrich himself." (1) "

There is much more on this subject in the artiicle, wihich can be found at

www.jewishworldreview.com/jewish/ethicist_funds_fundamentals.php3  

No, bichlal not. I was using the Torah only as an EXAMPLE of how any spiritual feat, whether it's "sweetness in Torah" or "conquering the Yetzer Hara", in order to truly achieve a true freedom and pleasure in the Avodah, it first requires that we are willing to die for it - or at least be willing to "feel like we are dying" and still not give in. If we can achieve that, Hashem does an amazing thing and suddenly the Avodah becomes sweet!

I was actually contrasting it to Torah and saying how with this struggle, it's even EASIER to acheive this freedom and sweetness than it is to achieve it in Limud Torah. Because in our case here, it just requires NOT doing anything - along with being willing to suffer whatever it takes NOT to fall. If we can achieve this kind of determination in our minds, at that point we will suddenly feel a TRUE freedom from the Yetzer Hara and it actually becomes pleasurable to serve Hashem and not the yetzer Hara.

It's truly an amazing revelation. Most people don't know this until they've achieved it. But I am revealing it here for everyone so that it will be easier for us all to take that initial leap of faith!

This is so true. It feels so great to be able to say that I BEAT this. Obviously I'm not letting down my guard, and I'm going to install a filter on my computer at home when I go for Pesach.

your guard or Guard or G-d?

I think all 3! 

guardureyes wrote on 02 Mar 2009 06:36:


Yasher Koach for explaining this.  I also just found something on this subject which I added to my post.