370 - More Pleasure?

TRANSFORM YOUR EMUNAH!

We've discussed many times that our job in this world is to believe specifically when we don't see or when we don't understand. We are also called on to have emunah, to believe that with regards to every single one of us, the amount of pleasure that we are destined to experience in this world has been preordained Not only that, as we've learned previously, the Torah commentaries teach that we ourselves, before we came down into this world, prescribed the exact happenings of what will be best for us throughout our lives. And therefore, the amount of pleasure that we are due to experience, we have already prescribed and preordained before we came into this world.

When we indulge in some form of forbidden pleasure, we ought to remember Hashem has already preordained the exact amount of pleasure that we are due to receive. And therefore, if we opt to receive some of that pleasure in a forbidden way, we are now detracting from some of the pleasure that Hashem had destined to give to us in a permissible way. The amount of pleasure that Hashem decreed that we will experience will for sure make its way to our lives, because if Hashem decreed so, we believe that that will for sure happen. We are called on to choose to experience that pleasure in a permissible way. When we choose to experience pleasure in a forbidden way, committing a sin, then not only are we using up the pleasure that Hashem has already predestined for us, but also we are committing a sin which has consequences waiting for us in the next world. Whereas when we opt to follow Hashem's commandments and stay away from any form of pleasure which could be related to sin, we will then receive our full measure of pleasure in this world, but in a permissible way. Thereby, we will not have any trace of sin related to that pleasure on our record when we come to the next world. And not only that, it will actually be a mitzvah because it is a mitzvah to enjoy the pleasures that Hashem gives us in this world in a permissible way.

What is important to remember is that we cannot make more pleasure for ourselves than Hashem has already preordained. Sometimes the evil inclination entices us to believe that if we perform a certain forbidden act, we thereby will gain by the pleasure that we will experience. But the truth of the matter, if one is looking out of the eyes of an emunah perspective, is that one cannot add even one iota more of pleasure than has already been preordained by Hashem. And all that pleasure can be experienced and received in a permissible way. We do not need to look to areas that are not permissible, areas of sin, because regardless, we will receive the pleasure that has already been preordained for us.

There is a story told in the Gemara of a man whose evil inclination took over him, and there was a certain very beautiful woman of ill repute. And this man made his way over to experience pleasure in a forbidden way. And at the last moment, when the man had the opportunity to sin, something stopped him, and he decided to make his way back, and he did not commit the sin that he had come for. And this woman of ill repute was so inspired by this episode that in the end, she made her way to the town of this man looking for him, and she asked his rabbi to convert her, and eventually, the man who had initially seeked this pleasure in a forbidden way became married to this woman.

One very powerful point we learn from this Gemara is that we believe that all pleasure was already preordained from Hashem. We have the choice of how we will experience that. We could, God forbid, opt to use up the amount of pleasure that has been preordained to us by indulging in forbidden areas. That would be a real shame, because that pleasure now will have serious consequences, more than we can imagine, whereas an individual who is able to take to heart that that same form of pleasure is already predestined to them, and one can experience that same pleasure in a permissible way, not having any taint of sin, but rather having a mitzvah of enjoying Hashem's world to their record. “Thank you, Hashem, for all the pleasure that you have given me and are due to give me, and thank you, Hashem, for teaching me that all the pleasure in my world can be obtained in a permissible way.”