Commandment Profile:

-47) No indulging wayward thoughts or sights
Application to gentiles:
Required
Mandated punishment for violation:
From Heaven
Brief description:
Not to allow (a) our thoughts to indulge in false beliefs, nor (b) our eyes and hearts to pursue worldly pleasures.

Controlling our thoughts means not allowing ourselves to engage in speculative thinking (“What if…?”) about the ideas of false philosophies or religions; it means not raising illegitimate questions or doubts about Truth. The human mind has two components: the conscious mind and the subconscious. Even if a person knows the Truth solidly in his conscious mind, he can undermine his own intellect and create cognitive dissonance — a mind split between that which he knows to be true consciously, and a falsehood that grips his subconscious mind and turns his emotions agains that which his intellect knows. The result is what doctors refer to as “neurosis,” a state in which a person knows what is right but finds himself overwhelmed by feelings and desires opposite to that knowledge.

Controlling our eyes and hearts means not allowing ourselves to think about forbidden worldly pleasures, even if one doesn’t actually sin by committing the act. The very act of pondering such sins gradually builds a powerful tide of desires and temptations, ultimately leading the person to commit the sin in action. This commandment also prohibits us from engaging our thoughts in chasing permitted worldly pleasures; it is one thing to partake of something permitted, but quite another to turn that into an obsession.

Examples:

  • Not to watch movies, listen to music, or read books or magazines that promote false ideas and wrong values.
  • To minimize entertainment generally, even that which does not promote evil.
Category:
Biblical source(s) (Rambam): Num. 15:39
Biblical source (Sefer HaChinuch): Num. 15:39
Number in Sefer HaChinuch: 387
Sources explaining relevance to gentiles:

  • Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Melachim 9:2
    All idolatry-related offenses forbidden for Jews, even without death penalty, are also prohibited to gentiles.

  • Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Teshuvah 3:5-6,8
    Hasidic Gentiles have a portion in Olam HaBa; Christians and Muslims do not, because they are kofrim baTorah (and studying kefirah can lead to imitating it).