"From the age of fifty he shall retire from the work legion, and do no more work." (Bamidbar 8:25)
The proliferation of the internet has negatively impacted the morality and decency of society.
However, people typically limit that conversation to the ways that the internet and social media are negatively influencing the youth.
The Satan convinces us that adults can be immune to the temptations of the internet. They can control themselves.
Always on Guard
R' Meir from Premishlan once shared the following story:
When I was young, my Rebbe, R' Mordechai from Kremnitz, asked me to join him on a trip to another town. The journey took us through snow-covered mountains. The road downhill became steep and curvy, and the wagon started to pick up speed. I was worried that it would lose control and tip over. I wanted to jump out, but my Rebbe grabbed my hand and said, "Don't worry. Nothing is going to happen."
Eventually, the wagon slowed as the road flattened, and we continued away from the mountains. I was relieved that nothing had happened. However, just as I began to think that everything was fine, the wagon tipped over. Eventually, after much effort, we were rescued from the wreckage.
Afterwards, my Rebbe told me, "When a person fears their Yetzer Harah, when they view their Yetzer Harah as a clear and present danger, then they will remain strong, and they can overcome its temptations without trying to justify any of their wayward behaviors. However, if they become overconfident and believe that they are immune to the Yezter Harah's trickery, they will lose in the end. Their arrogance will be their undoing. As the pasuk says in Mishlei (28:14), Fortunate is the man who is always afraid, but he who hardens his heart will fall into evil."
A person must always be on guard. They can never fool themselves into thinking that they have completely vanquished their Yetzer Harah or that the temptations of their youth are forever gone. Everyone must remember that their Yetzer Harah will be chasing them their entire lives.
Never Safe
R' Chaiyka from Amdor was a student of the Great Maggid. He spent his entire life withdrawing from the temptations of this world. He continuously fasted to the point that he was emaciated. One of his friends once expressed his admiration of R' Chaiyka's holiness and righteousness which can be seen on his look. He replied, "This is not evidence of righteousness. After all, the Tanna taught in the Mishnah that 'one should not trust themselves.' Meaning, even when you can see your bones (shares the Hebrew root-word as "self"), don't believe that you are safe from your Yetzer Harah."
Sefer Chassidim (Siman 619) explained, that the Tanach includes the stories of the tzaddikim and elders who were tempted by sin, to teach us that even the righteous are confronted by their Yetzer Harah. This reinforced the idea that a Jew must always remain diligent to protect themselves from the Yetzer Harah.
As Chazal (Kiddushin 30b) taught, a person is confronted daily by his Yetzer Harah who is seeking to destroy him. You can have victories. The Yetzer Harah can even remain dormant and quiet. But it never gives up. It is just waiting for an opportune time to attack again.
R' Yehoshua ben Levi taught (Breishis Rabba 54:1): "The usual way of the world is that if a person grows up with another person, two or three years in the same city, he develops a liking for him. But this one [the evil inclination] grows up with a person from his youth to his old age, and if it finds an opportunity within seventy years, it will bring him down".
The Gemara (Brachos 61a) compared the Yetzer Harah to a fly. A fly nags a person persistently. Even if he gets swatted away, he waits until he can return. So too, the Yetzer Harah continuously attacks a person. And, even if he is "swatted" away, it lurks, waiting to resume his efforts to destroy him.
Guard your Gates
The Torah demands that we create guardrails and fences to protect ourselves, as it says (Devarim 6:2), "In order that you fear the Lord, your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments that I command you, you, your son, and your son's son, all the days of your life". Even if a person is elderly and they have children and grandchildren, they cannot trust themselves. They need to maintain those fences, those walls, those guardrails that can help him in his daily battles with the Yetzer Harah.
Temptation and sin begins with inappropriate thoughts in one's mind and heart. Therefore, you must be committed to protecting the sanctity of those thoughts by safeguarding your eyes and ears. The pasuk says (Devarim 16:18), "You shall set up judges and law enforcement officials for yourself in all your gates..." The tzaddikim interpret that this is a commandment to place "guards" at all of your body's gates, so that thoughts and ideas that are heretical do not enter your mind and heart.
Now, we can interpret the pasuk from our parsha. Our pasuk says, "From the age of fifty he shall retire from the work legion, and do no more work..." An elderly person who has spent a life performing mitzvos might have an easier time with that Avodah.
Rashi explains that they no longer need to do the work of carrying on their shoulders; however, he can return to [the work of] locking the gates...
Observing the mitzvos might not feel like work, but they still need to guard their "gates" and protect themselves from the Yetzer Harah's infiltration. The internet and what it can expose a person to impacts the young and elderly alike. No one is safe from its negative influence, from the temptations that the Yetzer Harah can introduce through this technology. Everyone must protect themselves.
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