The primary test in this generation is זנות in all of its forms as we have discussed recently and often in the past. To pass this nisayon many people need constant chizzuk. We are inundated with images reminding us of our more animalistic side.
4.6 billion hours on just one website watching זנות!! What about all of the other websites??!! And what about regular TV shows and movies that are also filled with זנות. What about watching the news where the female newscaster has the looks of a supermodel, spent two hours on her makeup, hair and wardrobe and is [despite the expensive outfit] half naked. That is also זנות. [How come the male newscasters are always fully and respectably dressed? Because in our society women are sex objects and men are not. Men are considered actual human beings and not just the subject of lust as women are portrayed. It is not a woman's fault when she is sexually abused but our culture definitely bears some of the blame for brainwashing men into objectifying women - which men do quite naturally without the added help...].
THINKING about זנות is in some ways worse than the act itself because it contaminates the MIND which is the more spiritual side of man:
I know of a respected member of his community who enjoys learning and finishes Shas every seven and a half years. He is a father, grandfather, seemingly a real mentsch, who is immersed in the world of pornography. That is just one example but of course there are many such people.
Then there are the people with same sex attraction who instead of fighting their yetzer instead seek confirmation that it is WONDERFUL to succumb to it and even have parades and demonstrations about it. If the Torah won't allow me to do what I want to do then we will just have to change the Torah. We were created for pleasure right? So everyone has there own idea of pleasure....
The other EXTREMELY acute problem [which is related to the first] is a lack of Emunah. A Professor of Sociology [I believe] at Bar Ilan just came out with a paper detailing how it is becoming more and more acceptable in Orthodox circles to deny basic tenets of our faith. It is not just the layman who many secretly [and some will admit it if you ask them] don't believe. It is also the "rabbis" who come out with articles asserting and legitimizing their kfirah. Chazal [according to one opinion] say that the last 8 psukim were written by Yehoshua, so why can't we just attribute non-Mosaic authorship to everywhere we want, they surmise. And then there are the rabbis who don't believe but realize that it would be a bad career move to publicize it so they keep it quiet....
R' Dovid'l of Tolna said that the world is split up between 50 percent believers and 50 percent deniers. He then explained that he is not referring to different groups of people but to the same people. Within every believer there is also a denier [and within deniers there is a believer].
CONCLUSIONS!!
We have to work on maintaining our levels of Kedusha and constantly strive to grow. Shmiras Einayim, Machshava, Dibbur etc. etc. The whole nine yards.
We have to constantly strengthen our Emunah. The notion that "nothing created everything" is quite a difficult proposition to rationally defend, so we are on firm ground. The notion that a bunch of imposters fooled the entire Jewish people into thinking that G-d appeared to them in a mass revelation and then gave them hundreds of difficult to fulfill commands and severe punishments for transgressors and the Jews naively bought into it is also a difficult proposition to defend. We have a vast literature, countless shiurim on line and otherwise, many people to talk to about these issues and a lifestyle and life cycle that increases faith. So we have to make the bolstering of faith a priority for ourselves and for those over whom we bear influence.
