The Library

What Would Stop Us?

Now that we have faced the truth about ourselves, we need to ask: What spiritual and non-spiritual repercussions WOULD stop us?

Spiritually speaking, what WOULD stop me?

• I would not be Mechalel Shabbos to view shmutz, no matter how bad I wanted it. I would be able to wait 24 hours.
• If the only way to get my fix in the coming 24 hours was by eating a Ham sandwich first, I probably would hold out and not do it for 24 hours.
• After I finish fully giving in to my desires, I don’t want to throw the rest of my Yiddishkeit away. I feel bad about it and I really do want to “come back” to Hashem. If I had a choice to push a “Stop These Aveiros Forever” button, I would press it then.

What does this all show me? That I still do have a holy spark within me, and that my Yiras Shamayim is still existent. It may not be enough to stop me in general, but it is strong enough to make me want to get rid of these behaviors AFTER the act. And even before the act, it is strong enough to enable me to hold out for a while – when the spiritual repercussions are BIG (like Chillul Shabbos or eating Treif). What we can see from this is that there ARE spiritual repercussions that would stop us, if they were only BIG enough, and especially when we’re not under the spell of lust.

Now let’s look at the non-spiritual side of the coin. What WOULD stop me?

• If I was about to act out and someone walked into the room, would I continue?
• If every time I acted out, I would become racked with pain, would I continue?
• If there was an electronic eye following me, and every time I acted out, my wife or Rebbe would see me doing it, would I continue?
• If every time I acted out I would feel sick and I would have to take a bus to the hospital, stay there for 2 hours, and get a shot to return me to normal, would I continue?

What does this all show me? It shows that there ARE repercussions that would stop me, if only they were BIG enough.

To sum up: Although the “normal” repercussions, both short term and long term, are not enough to stop me, there still do exist both spiritual and non-spiritual repercussions that WOULD stop me, if they were big enough and immediate enough.