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Let your eyes see your teacher |
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A tip submitted by user Palti
Having benefited form this tip myself I feel forced to pass it on to my 'extended family' of Jews and Jewesses everywhere. Accordingly please mzakeh harabbim and publish this as a new article on your site.
The computer and the internet are a potentially enormous cause of wasted time (lo aleinu). When you think you think of the great person you can become and the great things you can do elsewhere it's clear that one needs to be mightily strongly disciplined in how one uses these items. In fact a very wise person will enlist help to strengthen themselves. And what better help could there be than from a gadol. I suggest everyone should find a picture of a gadol which they find inspiring and stick it prominently to their computer. One can even do this to a laptop - I have done so.
We find a source for this tip in the Torah. Yosef a'h was saved from sinning with eishet Potiphar by envisioning the image of his holy father. Perhaps similarly gedolim could be said to be like spiritual 'fathers' - for the entire generation.
I myself use the picture of Rav Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook z'l which is on this website. I personally do not follow Rav Kook, however I find his face reminds me of his enormous Torah learning (the Rosh Yeshiva of Volozhin said the entire yeshiva was worthwhile just to produce Rav Kook and the Hazon Ish z'l stood up for Rav Kook) and the warmth and gentility in his face encourage me that I too can become great in Torah and those qualities also in fatherly fashion guide me to use my time better, while the fire in his face gives me a holy zeal to pursue mitzvot with all strength right now!! But of course one can use a photo of any true gadol that inspires one to do good.
A quick practical way of carring out this tip is to print off a passport size photo of your chosen gadol, cut out from the printed page a bit more than double the length of the photo, fold that piece of paper in half so the photo is strengthened with a piece of paper behind it, get a roll of very wide clear duct tape/sellotape, put the photo carefully onto the tape, flip the photo carfully forward so that the other side is also covered with tape and so now the photo is sealed with a tag at the end of tape covered with tape. Cut as required and attach to the computer using tape on the tag. |
