You're Investing | Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Katz

One of the hardships of Shmiras Einayim is we feel we're going to have to give up on so much. We're going to lose so much. There's a beautiful world out there. There's so much beauty. So there's a Gaon that actually was מתייחס to this. He says a big Yesod in life. He says that whenever you give HaKadosh Baruch Hu in This World, Hashem is going to give you back in This World exactly the same pleasure, much, much more, and that is in This World. In the Next World, even more so. The Gemara in Menachos 44 speaks about a Talmid that he one time heard about a זונה in one of the cities overseas, and he sent her 400 gold coins, He had to travel all the way to מדינת הים. And it says she had seven beds, six of silver and one of gold. She went to the top, and this Talmid started to go. And as he was going, his Tzitzis brushed him, and he went off the bed. So the זונה was taken aback, and then she said: I'm not letting you come out of my palace, she had guards all over, until you tell me what was the problem. I'm not beautiful? And he said: My Tzitzis tapped me on the head and reminded me that I have Hashem. I couldn't. She asked him what's his name, where are you from? She took her money and she was very, very wealthy, she sold everything, she went to his Yeshiva. He was in the Yeshiva of R’ Chiya. Can I see the Rosh Yeshiva? She wants to become a גיורת. He says: You're not allowed to become a convert, if you want to marry one of the boys. She told him the story about this Bochur, and she said: I'm so impressed with him, I want to marry him. As the Gemara says, Those beds that she had arranged for him in a prohibited fashion, she now arranged for him in a permitted fashion. She would have done it one time. Now she was his wife. He would have paid her 400 gold coins. She paid him loads and loads of money. This is his reward in This World. In the Next World, even more so. We think we’re giving up. We’ll appreciate our wives, we’ll have Nachas from our children, we'll enjoy a Gemara, we'll enjoy a sunset, we'll enjoy so much in the world more. Remember, you're not giving up. you're investing. Similarly, we find Yosef married the daughter of Eishes Potiphera. Zogt the Medrash in Parshas Miketz, He gave up on the mother, who was older, so Hashem gave him as a reward, the daughter, who was younger, prettier, and as a wife. Similarly, the Gemara in Nedarim 50b says that Rabbi Akiva married, at the end of his days, the wife of the evil Turnus Rufus, a beautiful lady. What a Shidduch. It’s like, you know, R’ Chaim Kanievsky marrying the wife of... we won’t go into details. Like, what a Shidduch. How did it come? Brings the ר”ן the story that he used to stump her husband in court. Her husband was upset. He told his wife. She said: Let me be מכשיל him בזנות, and then we could get him. We’ll פארשמעטער him, we’ll make the Yidden not be מכבד him anymore. She tried to get him to be מזנה, and he wasn't. And we know the rule, When you’re עומד in the Nisayon, you get it in This World. In the Next World, even more so. Shmiras Einayim is an investment in life. It’s an investment in enjoying life and having real Simcha, instead of always wanting to see, and there's always more and more to see, and you're never happy. You could actually be much, much happier in life. And this is his reward in This World. In the Next World, even more so.