You have boys who live in an out-of-town yeshiva. They're bachurim (boys) in yeshiva; the place is as pure as can be. It's as pure as a house in the 1500s that I described to you before. They're just rooms, beds, maybe they have running water and heat, and a beit midrash (study hall) and sefarim (books); they're safe. There's just a yeshiva phone. They don't even have phones on them, just a yeshiva phone on the wall. And what happens? A boy can take the yeshiva phone off the wall and call any of, like, a thousand phone numbers that AI has, and they can start asking any question they want. First they could just be curious about the war in Israel, and then they could be curious about the war in Ukraine, and then they could be curious about Iceland or whatever, Greenland, and they could be curious about Trump, then they could be curious about sports, and then they could be curious about celebrities, and then they could be curious about Hollywood, and then they could be curious about marriages or relationships in Hollywood. I don't have to keep going.
And all of a sudden you have a boy who's in yeshiva. The place is as pure as can be, as protected as possible, and all of a sudden the holiest places in the world have no walls, and the holiest places in the world are now unprotected. Even with the television and the internet, they were still protected. Now they're not, because what the yetzer hara (evil inclination) has accomplished is what he accomplished on the sixth day of creation, when Adam ate from the tree. What he accomplished by the sin of the egel (golden calf), when we worship the golden calf, is what he's accomplishing again now. He's making the temptation inside of us that it's become a deeper, deeper part of our life.
Most people in this room, I know, haven't experienced anything I just described. For most of you in this room, what happened is, like I said to you before, maybe you Google something and you got the answer quicker, and you're like, "Wow, that was really wonderful, that was really nice." You're like, "Wow, that was really wonderful, that was really nice." You're like, "Wow, that was really wonderful, that was really nice." That's how they blindside you by making it easier and funner and more enjoyable and making life more comfortable. Slowly but surely, they step after step after step, until you're in their grips, and you can't live without it, you can't think without it, you can't write an essay without it, you can't answer an equation without it, you can't learn Gemara without it, you can't do a recipe without it, you can't go any place without it, you can't shop without it, you can't build a business without it, you can't build a house without it, you can't have a relationship without it, you can't be mentally healthy without it, you can't be happy without it, you can't be normal without it. Once all of that happens, it owns you, and by then it'll pretty much be too late.