Hey, it’s a democracy, a free world. Live and let live. As long as you don’t bother anyone, it’s nobody’s business.
All these clichés reflect the value system - or the valueless system - of current times. The only value that matters is tolerance and not taking advantage of others. A victimless crime is thus not a crime at all.
Without taking active steps to reject the prevailing attitude, by osmosis it becomes our attitude as well. Like the famous Yiddishism goes, “Vee es kristalt zich, es yidelt zich.” How the non-Jews behave, so do the Jews.
It follows that in today’s society, shmiras einayim is total anathema. It makes no sense to guard what you see when “it’s nobody’s business,” and it (seemingly) harms no one.
More generally, this humanistic attitude is diametrically opposed to yiras shamayim, the fear of Heaven experienced by every sincere Jew - a fear based on the awareness that I am being watched and judged constantly by Hashem. What I think and see is of extreme importance to me and to Hashem.
Working on yiras Shamayim is therefore vitally important in maintaining kedushah under such conditions.
In one of the letters in which the Steipler addresses the topic of kedushah, he writes:
I know of no specific way of working on the trait of ta’avah (improper desire), other than the general idea that true yiras Shamayim prevents one from doing that which he should not. For yiras Shamayim brings awareness of the holiness of one’s neshamah, which was hewn from beneath the Kisei HaKavod (Hashem’s Throne of Glory), and of the great damage and pain caused in all the Worlds through a breach of kedushah.
One must fix in his mind that this world is a mere seventy-year waiting room, and for thousands upon thousands of years he will live in the World to Come. Why would he forfeit that extended life for a momentary glance?
Working on yiras Shamayim means truly feeling that there exists a “Seeing Eye” observing our actions. This realization greatly alleviates the lure of tumah and allows us to be faithful to Hashem.
Working on yiras Shamayim helps in shmiras einayim in yet another, surprising way.
We have mentioned that willpower is like a muscle, which gets depleted after repeated use. The following is excerpted from an article about self-control.
Social experiments have reviewed eight decades of research and concluded that religious belief and piety promote self-control.
People who felt compelled to exert self-control because of their core beliefs had significantly more self-discipline than others who acted just to please others.
When you add it all up, it turns out there are remarkably consistent findings that religiosity correlates with higher self-control.
Brain-scan studies have shown that when people pray, there’s a lot of activity in two parts of the brain that are important for self-regulation and control of attention and emotion.
The rituals that religions have been encouraging for thousands of years seem to be a kind of aerobic workout for self-control.
Thinking about the oneness of humanity and the unity of nature doesn’t seem to be related to self-control. The self-control effect seems to come from being engaged in religious institutions and behaviors.
Personality studies have identified a difference between true believers and others who attend services for extrinsic reasons, like wanting to impress people or make social connections. The intrinsically religious people have higher self-control ...
How, then, does a person grow in yiras Shamayim? By learning those sefarim that he finds inspiring, whether sifrei mussar or Chassidus; and by attaching himself to a person whom he regards as being closer to Hashem than he is.