As Heard From Rabbi Avigdor Miller ZT”L
“And if a man persuade a virgin…” (22:15)
“Persuade” is expressed by Y’Fateh which means “to open wide.” The persuader “opens” the mind of the persuaded one to listen and to accept the persuasion, but men must close their minds to the evil ones and they should open their minds solely to the words of the righteous.
Our minds are our most precious possession, and therefore we should keep our minds tightly closed against the persuasions of the materialists and other sinners. “More than anything that you guard, guard your heart (’heart’ means ‘mind’ ) Mishle 4:23
Quoted from ‘A Nation Is Born’ by Rabbi Avigdor Miller
The Rabbi would use the following example to clarify this principle of guarding our minds. The Brinks truck, full with money, pulls up to the bank to make the deposit. It stops and four armed security men pounce out on all sides with their guns drawn to protect the valuable cargo.
From this we can learn that if the bank is so careful with their money that they hire armed men to guard it, then how much more careful should we be with what we allow to enter our minds. Our Minds is all we have. It is who we are. It is our essence.
Abraham Abinu taught us this principle as the Pasuk says “And he lifted his eyes and he saw (three men…),” The language of the Pasuk is seems redundant, “lifted his eyes” & “he saw.” Either one phrase or the other could have been used. But both are used to tell us that Abraham always “lifted his eyes” to ‘preview’ whether or not he was going to allow himself to ‘look’ at this and allow it to enter his mind.
This was how Abraham was teaching us, his children, the most fundamental principle of guarding our minds.
Shabbat Shalom
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