GOING AFTER YOUR HEART
I mentioned the wife who is repelled by her husband.
What does this have to do with Torah sh'baal pe and the Yetzer haRa?
Everything!
Every day we say in the Shema, do not go after "your heart and your eyes." What happens when you go after your heart? You follow your feelings, your desires. This takes you away from Hashem. Why is that?
In Western culture, eating has become an obsession. MacDonald's in America used to advertise that they had sold 20 billion hamburgers (or some figure like that). In France they disguise their obsession by making it look like culture, but they are just as obsessed with eating, if not more. It is a national cultural symbol; a French chef gets paid astronomical sums for making dishes that cost hundreds of dollars in a 3-star restaurant. Italy is similar. What would Italy be without pasta, and its famous export, pizza!
Is this what Hashem put us in the world to accomplish?
Following after our heart is not limited to food, because "ainachem ... your eyes" comes next. Western culture is obsessed with the sight of its eyes, which, among other things, means looking at provocative pictures which corrupt the entire society.
Lehavdil, look at the holy rabbis of Am Yisroel. The Baba Sali kept his eyes covered constantly, and he could reach into Heaven. Our battle with the Yetzer ha Ra begins with learning not to follow after our heart and after our eyes.
And this has everything to do with Shalom Bayis, because marriage works only if our eyes are for our basherte, the wife or husband who is destined for us in Heaven.
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