HaRav Avigdor – A “How To” For an Immoral Generation

 

“How do we pass the test of moral decay that’s all around us in our generation?”

 
Listen to me. The Gemara says, למה נסמכה פרשת נזיר לפרשת סוטה – Why are the two parshiyos of Nazir and Sotah together, one after the other? כל הרואה סוטה בקלקולה יזיר עצמו מן היין – To teach us a lesson that when someone sees what happened to the sotah, he should become a nazir; he should accept a vow of nezirus upon himself. When you see something so wicked, so immoral, it’s telling you that you’d better get busy strengthening yourself!

Now, the Chovos Halevovos learns pshat like this: He says that when you see a generation that’s porutz, that’sbroken down in a certain thing, then you should go to the opposite direction and be extreme in the opposite direction; whatever it is.

And therefore, today we have to be more careful with tznius than our forefathers were. We’re obligated to be more machmir than they were. So don’t say that once upon a time, there was no such thing as yichud if בעלה בעיר – that means that if a woman’s husband is in the town, so a meshulach, a person collecting charity, can come into the house. That’s the halacha; she can bring the meshulach into the house and can give him something to eat because בעלה בעיר, since her husband is in the city, so there’s no issur yichud. No, it doesn’t pay today to say that heter anymore, no. You can’t rely on that today in a generation that’s so porutz.

Besides, בעלה בעיר in those days it meant it was a small town. If he’s in Manhattan and she’s in Brooklyn it’s not called בעלה בעיר. But even if they’re both in Brooklyn, no; these rules don’t hold good anymore. You have to be machmir in dinei yichud much more than once upon a time.

And therefore, in general it’s important for us to guard ourselves with more kedusha than our forefathers. So you’ll say how can that be? No matter, that’s what’s necessary.

You know, once upon a time, there was no issur yichud of p’nuyah, there was no aveirah to be alone with an unmarried girl. Then something happened in the days of Dovid and our forefathers decreed on yichud shel p’nuyah. So you see that they had to make chumros when something happened. And we have to make chumros today just because we see the pritzus, the indecency, spreading on all sides.
TAPE # 926

Thank you Anon for this. Especially timely.