Virtually trapped in a pitiless milieu of a one-track minded society, those who guard their eyes are our world-class celebrities, unquenchable idealists ever making purity a top priority. How frequently they unquestioningly ignore society’s norms and straitjacket themselves, though born into a “been there, done that” era, remaining unfazed even if it seems to be mission impossible.
Besides bringing siyata d’shmaya in that individual’s whole avodah, he draws down onto himself a transcendent light of kedusha. An unfathomable holiness envelops the man who conquers his lust when it burns and races inside him. Though imperceptible to us in our physical world, it’s there.
The gemara in Sanhedrin (31b) tells of a certain individual who overcame his flaming passion for a certain married woman, and how he walked away from the trickiest situation not just unstained, but with a shining light of kedusha now hovering above his head, visible to those around him. Nothing can ever eclipse the ethereal light created by every Yid who is striving towards kedusha.
Nothing was haphazard when Yosef Hatzaddik rose to the position of Mishneh L’Melech. What was now granted to him was all his own handiwork. No discomfort borne was forgotten when his hour came.
We Yidden know that this World is not a playground. We are not here for cheap thrills. The purpose of life is closeness to Hashem achieved through self-mastery. And, like Yosef Hatzaddik, in the end we will never lose out. Whatever pleasure we renounce in pursuit of purity will one day be handed to us on a plate in a permitted way. Hashem ensures that those who do not grab will not lose out; He has plenty of permitted ways to deliver these pleasures. On the other hand, those who pursue forbidden pleasures hardly ever get to really enjoy them and, afterwards, are plagued with remorse.
Hashem’s plans will come to be, regardless of all our little strategies. If a person sets out to indulge his [forbidden] animalistic fancies, the sun may shine brightly at first. But as he proceeds along the glittering, wide-open spaces of Ruin Road, he will encounter a lot more difficulties than he had bargained for in the form of obstacles, disruptions, and disappointments.
And what of the fellow who starts out in the opposite direction, without a glance over his shoulder at the “fun” left behind? Keeping to the restrictive path that leads only to where the Torah takes him, he gradually becomes aware that a goodly measure of the loveliest things in life has chanced to come his way without any effort on his part.