When a person has been subject to the influence of goyim, what can he do to erase that influence?
ANSWER:
When you work, what can you do? You have to take it and bear it, you cannot help yourself, you have to make a parnassa, but you must keep in mind that your heart is in the Klal Yisroel. Because many times when you are among goyim or irreligious Jews, you begin thinking and identifying with them, it's natural. A person tends to melt into his environment. So you have to keep in mind, this is not my environment, I'm in galus. When I come back to my bais hamedrash, or to my holy family, that's the place where my neshomo belongs. And you have to be on guard that what they say should not penetrate into your mind.
My Rebbe once said, when you open your mouth you are becoming a rebbe to the person that's listening to you, because your words go into his neshomo forever and ever. A remarkable statement. Any time you speak to somebody else, your words go into his neshomo and remain there forever and ever. The truth is that twenty years later he'll remind himself that once he heard it from you, so you see it didn't get lost even though he forgot about it in the interim. And therefore when somebody – a letz, a rosho or a goy – speaks to you, you must know it has an effect on you, so you should be mevatel b'libo. You should think in your mind that I'm not interested. Think in your mind I'm not interested in what he's saying.
Of course if it's business, if it's things you have to know, technicalities, so listen, but otherwise if it's an expression of a thought, an idea or an ideal, you should be mevatel b'libo – k'afra d'ara, it's nothing to you what they say.
It's only when you get back to your bais hamedrash where you open up your sefer – your yeshiva or your home, where you open up your own sefer – and you live your own life, then you know that what's being said to you is being said in a way that's for your benefit.
Good Shabbos To All
This is transcribed from questions that were posed to Harav Miller by the audience at the Thursday night lectures.
To listen to the audio of this Q & A please dial: 201-676-3210
Important Numbers
