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I've been tempted a few times, but have resisted the temptation for two reasons:

1. I know that Hashem is watching me.
2. If this is the last day of my life, or the last day before Moshiach arrives, I want it to be a clean day.

STORIES Off the Daf

A Man’s House is His Castle

Today’s daf discusses the prohibition of piggul, a product of inappropriate thoughts. It is no surprise that the Alter of Kelm, zt”l, calls illicit thoughts piggul. But many who are assailed by negative thoughts wonder what they can do to rectify the situation.

A certain ba’al habayis went to the Maggid of Mezeritch, zt”l, with this very problem. He cried, “Rebbe, please help me find a way to conquer the negative thoughts that are so hard for me to overcome!”

The Maggid sent this man to Rav Zev of Zhitomir, the author of the Ohr HaMeir, zt”l, saying, “Since you are a ba’al habayis, it would be better if a ba’al habayis showed you how he overcomes such challenges...”

Despite the freezing cold and difficult conditions for travel, this man rented a wagon and rode all the way to Zhitomir where the Ohr Hameir served as the town’s shochet.

When the man finally arrived at the front door, he knocked loudly. Strangely, although he could see from the light, that Rav Zev was awake, no one came to open the door.

He knocked again but the door remained shut. It was very cold and the ba’al habayis didn’t wish to wait until morning so he began to knock with all of his remaining strength.

Finally Rav Zev came to the door and asked, “Who is knocking at my door so late at night?”

“I have been sent by the Maggid to ask how to overcome the negative thoughts that plague me,” he replied.

“But you are obviously a ba’al habayis,” answered Rav Zev.

“So?”

“As I have just demonstrated by letting you stand outside here, one who is a ba’al habayis can refuse entry to anyone knocking at his door. The same is true for illicit thoughts. If you keep the door of your mind closed by thinking in Torah, such thoughts have no choice but to remain outside. It is only if we let them in that they can gain entry even when we prefer they remain outside.

“This is the meaning of the Mishnah:
אם בטלת מן התורה, יש לך הרבה בטלים
כנגדך
This means that if one does not occupy himself with Torah, even if he wishes to guard his thoughts, he will be beset with negative thoughts chas v’shalom.”

Rav Zev blessed the man with success and sent him on his way.

Dovid824 wrote on 29 Aug 2018 10:33:

Congratulations.

This looks like a unix command, does the code for this forum fork and run arbitrary commands?

echo Days clean: $(( ($(date +%s) - $(date --date="2018-05-31" +%s) )/(60*60*24) ))

mzl wrote on 29 Aug 2018 12:38:

It is a unix command. The forum doesn't run arbitrary code. That would've opened the site up to a host of issues in regards to security.

Exactly. So why do you need that in your signature?