Question & Answer With Dixie Yid - Shemiras Habris

A Simple Jew asks:

I have often heard people criticize Breslov Chassidus because they perceive it to have an overemphasis on the concept of shemiras habris. Given the fact that this concept pertains to overcoming one of a person's strongest and most powerful desires, would you attribute the criticism of shemiras habris to a critic's conscious or unconscious realization that they have great difficulties living up to the ideal? To what do you attribute Western society's derision of shemiras habris in general?

Dixie Yid answers:

First of all, I would try to explain the extreme emphasis that Rebbe Nachman had on working on and being mesaken the inyan of shmiras habris. I think that we could say that this is due to the approach laid out in the Rambam in Hilchos Deios 2:2. As you said in this post, based on your conversation with the Sudilkover Rebbe, we can assert that the desires related to the area of gilui arayos are the greatest ta'ava, the biggest test of most people in this generation. Given that, I think it is appropriate to see what the Rambam says about how to uproot one's most extreme bad traits:

What is their (extremely bad midos') treatment? Chachamim will teach one who is very angry to conduct himself [in such a way that] if he is struck or cursed, that he will not feel anything at all and to go in this way for a long time until the anger is uprooted from his heart. And if he is arrogant, he should conduct himself in an exceedingly degraded way and dwell in a way that is below everyone. He should dress in worn clothing and [wear things that] humiliate those who wear them. And he he should do other things along these same lines until his arrogance is uprooted from him. And then he should return to the middle path, which is the good path. And when he returns to the middle path, he should walk in that way for the rest of his life.

Perhaps Breslov Chassidus recognizes that shmiras habris is most people's greatest area of weakness and therefore encourages them to constantly go to the extreme to continually correct this aspect of themselves.

You asked whether some critics of Breslov deride their extreme emphasis on shmiras habris because they know, consciously or subconsciously, that they themselves are deficient in that area. There is something to be said for that. As Shmuel says in the Gemara in Kidushin 70b, "כל הפוסל... במומו פוסל." Anyone who finds fault with others, does so with his own faults.

You also asked about the reason for the fact that Western Society in general has gone to the worst extreme in the area of gilui arayos. One possible reason I can think of is that now is the time of Ikv'sa D'Meshicha, the birth pangs of Moshiach and the beginning of the geulah. I've just started learning an amazing sefer called Kol Hator (I recently posted a link to the text of the sefer) by one of the Talmidim of the Gra. He writes that the Gra taught that this time of Ischalta D'Geula, the beginning of the redemption. It is the time of Moshiach ben Yosef. (More info here) We know that Yosef's primary mida was midas Yesod, which is identified with a high level of purity in the area of shmiras habris.

It could be that in today's day and age, when the light of Moshiach ben Yosef is so strong, the majority culture also receives much of this light but does not channel it in the proper direction. Thus, among the majority of people, the Yesod is expressed as Yesod Nefula, the fallen form of that mida. Perhaps that is one reason why the area of shmiras habris is so weak in this generation.