A baal teshuva meets an old friend who reminds him of the good old days?
ANSWER:
And the answer is, we do what it says in Mishlei (17:12). It says: p'gosh dov shakul b'ish v'al ksil b'ivalto, better to encounter an enraged bear then to meet a fool with his foolishness. If you see an enraged bear coming down the street, so you don't think I'll walk by him on the sidewalk… No! You take a taxi. And if you see a fool coming down the street it's worse. If you see an old friend with whom you used to sin together in the bad old days, so turn around and run; you don't know him.
Don't tell me any stories, I'll make him repent, I'll change him; worry about yourself first. If a man comes down the street and he's diseased with a terribly contagious disease, and he's breathing germs, are you going to stand there and embrace him? Even though you want to help him out and give him medicine, nothing doing. Who cares about medicine, chayeco kodmin, you turn around and run, you wouldn't even come within ten feet of him. And that's the treatment to good old friends.
I had a case like that, a young man, so I turned him back, I got him off of pot; he stopped. I told him to go to work and he got a job. But I told him nothing will help if you still meet your old friends. It was breaking his heart however. I said look, if you don't give up your old friends then give me up, because I can't help you if you are going to continue meeting them. If you meet wicked friends who still indulge in all this stupidity of the narcotics culture, so called, so you won't make anything out of yourself.
You must break off with your friends.
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
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