I'm a liberal, bicycling vegetarian Jewish computer geek. I have a boyfriend, Jared, (yeah, mom, he's Jewish!) who makes me really happy (giant smile). http://joel.spolsky.com/
Q. I am a recovering addict to internet pornography. Baruch hashem after coming to yeshiva 2.5 years ago, I stopped cold turkey as they say, due to the fact(s) that I did not have a computer and also a strong feeling on wanting to make teshuvah for all the damage I caused myself and to a lesser degree others. I am now happily married, B"H. Since I stopped viewing forbidden sites and videos, I still struggle with the images in my head from all the garbage I looked at, and I know it is a sin to even think improper thoughts in this area that could lead to spilling seed, G-d forbid. I want to ask what are ways to try to forget or suppress the images in our brains, I even remember the names of different porn stars... G-d forgive me! what tikkunim can be done?
A. They tell a story of a Ba'al Teshuvah who once came to one of the Chassidic Masters with this question. Having done Teshuvah for his past evil ways, he found that he was still plagued by bad thoughts and fantasies. The Rebbe gave him a parable.
There was once a Jew named Moshkeh who owned an inn where he used to sell wine and spirits to the gentile peasants of the area. After a while, he became disgusted in dealing with the drunken gentiles and decided to go into another line of business and so he closed down the bar. That evening, there was a banging on the door. "Moshkeh, Moshkeh, open up! We want some wine and spirits!". "Sorry", Moshkeh replied, "from now on, the inn is closed". The gentiles had no choice but to leave disappointed. For days and even weeks afterwards, Moshkeh would keep getting knocks on the door, but as the word slowly spread that the Bar was closed, the knocking became less and less frequent until the gentiles stopped coming altogether.
The same goes with these thoughts, the Rebbe explained. After doing Teshuvah, the thoughts keep trying to get in. But if you keep telling them that the store is closed, they will stop coming altogether after a while.