Modesty – Protection from Foreign Elements
I was once visited by a young man and woman who were engaged to be married. I knew these people were used to mingling with other lightheaded youth. They would often have drinking parties with shady characters. I warned them to stop participating in such revelry. I went so far as to tell the young man, “If you continue visiting such places, the day will not be long when another man will take your wife from you.”
The couple looked at each other and burst into laughter, demonstrating their disdain for my odd notions. They were completely faithful to each other and cared deeply for one another. Many of their friends pointed at them as a most successful and compatible match. What in the world did the Rav mean by saying that a stranger would drive a wedge between them?
Time passed. The couple married and went on a trip to Eilat. There, as was their practice, they participated in partying and carousing. Suddenly, the young husband was shocked to discover his new wife walk off with a total stranger, who had won her over with his glib tongue. When he asked her where she was going, she merely shrugged and said she was taking a little walk with this man. But her husband would not take this sitting down. His ire aroused and seeing red, he got into a serious brawl with the stranger. Bruised and bloodied, they were rushed to the hospital.
This incident was a result of a lack of purity and chastity with which the couple conducted themselves. This was what drew unwanted attention to the woman, rachmana litzlan. Her steadfastness to her husband was too shaky to withstand the temptations of the Yetzer Hara.
