Trial in Going to a Place of Indecency
This question and answer were automatically translated using our trained AI and have not yet been reviewed by a qualified rabbi. Please treat this translation with caution.
go to original →
Question
I struggle with issues of modesty, I just feel an insane urge to go to a mixed beach. What can be done?
Answer
Hello
Blessed are you for fighting and overcoming, and not giving up.
It is important and beneficial to remember two things.
A. Desire is like drinking salty water; failure does not bring satisfaction, on the contrary, sin increases the desire more and more. Our sages said about this (Sukkah 52:) He who satiates it is hungry, and he who starves it is satisfied.
B. For every second and moment you overcome and do not go, you earn a tremendous reward. For one good thing in distress is better than a hundred without distress , and each stage of distress is in itself, for it is clear that there is not one degree of distress, but thousands of degrees, each harder than the other, and for each it is said that it is worth a hundred without distress. So you earn thousands upon thousands of mitzvot every moment in overcoming.
C. The correct way is not to confront the trial but to flee from it, like the righteous Joseph, of whom it is said, 'and he fled and went outside'. The escape can be by distancing oneself from a place where one might fail, and it can be by diverting one's mind from the thought of sin to another thought.
And the best escape is to immerse oneself in the words of Torah with study and effort. Thus, the evil inclination flees and is nullified, as Rambam wrote (Laws of Forbidden Relations 22:21) let him direct himself and his thoughts to the words of Torah and broaden his mind in wisdom, for the thought of immorality strengthens only in a heart devoid of wisdom,
Source
Avot de-Rabbi Natan
. "One good thing in distress is better than a hundred times without distress"
Rambam (Laws of Forbidden Relations 22:21).