Just like habit is a good character-trait when applied to good deeds and the commandments of the Torah, so too conversely if a person commits a sin and repeats it until he makes it into a habit, then for him that sin becomes as if it is permissible to the extent that even if he hears from those who speak in public to the people how severe these sins are, he will not abandon his bad habits. There are many very stringent sins which have become like completely permissible actions to many of the ignorant people because they have become so accustomed to this bad way and then when they become old they also cannot leave this way. Examples of these sins include slander, gossip, wasteful oaths, mentioning Hashem’s Name for nothing, forbidden speech, forbidden sights and many other such sins, and of course wasting time from learning Torah is valued like all of the others put together.
A man who is Jewish and believes that there is good reward for the righteous people and a bitter bad punishment for the wicked people will not commit spiritual suicide. Instead, he will risk his life to guard himself from any evil matter and to perform the correct thing, and each day-day by day-he will slowly start keeping the idea of abandoning evil and performing good, and even if at first he finds this very hard, after a while it will become sweet for him and become like perfume for him; his heart will rejoice and his honor will be as happy about the closeness to Hashem which he is achieving as one who finds a vast treasure.
