{"id":99268,"date":"2022-11-20T06:25:59","date_gmt":"2022-11-20T04:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/?p=99268"},"modified":"2022-11-21T20:17:02","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T18:17:02","slug":"protecting-ones-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/protecting-ones-eyes\/","title":{"rendered":"Protecting One\u2019s Eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201c\u2026 And not explore after your heart and after your eyes after which you stray\u201d<\/em><\/strong> (Bamidbar<\/em> 15:39)<\/p>\n

The Midrash relates (Yalkut Shimoni, Vayechi<\/em> 161) a fascinating tale: Rabbi Mattia ben Charash was sitting in the Beit Hamidrash, engrossed in Torah study. His face shone like the sun, and his countenance was like that of a Heavenly angel. In his entire life, he never gazed at a woman. One day, the Satan passed by him, and was extremely agitated at his level of greatness.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cCan there be a person who never sinned? Ribbono shel Olam<\/em>! How do You view Rabbi Mattia ben Charash?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a perfect tzaddik.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAllow me to test him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou will never succeed in causing him to sin. Still, I grant you permission to try.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Satan posed as a beautiful woman, whose beauty surpassed that of Na\u2019ama, the sister of Tuval Kayin. She stood before Rabbi Mattia. When he saw this woman, he immediately turned his head. She moved to where he was looking. So once again he turned away. She moved to his right, he turned to his left; she stood to his left, he turned to the right. Finally, he said, \u201cI am afraid my Yetzer Hara<\/em> will overpower me and cause me to sin.\u201d<\/p>\n

What did this tzaddik do? He called his disciple and asked for nails and fire. He heated up the nails and drove them into his eyes. When the Satan saw this, he collapsed onto the ground.<\/p>\n

Hashem commanded the Angel Refael to heal Rabbi Mattia ben Charash. He stood before him. Rabbi Mattia asked, \u201cWho are you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am Refael, sent by Hashem to heal your eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLeave me alone. What was, was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Refael returned to Hashem with Rabbi Mattia\u2019s words.<\/p>\n

Hashem sent Refael back with the following, \u201cI guarantee that the Yetzer Hara<\/em> will never overcome him.\u201d With those words, he was healed.<\/p>\n

The Rambam writes (Hilchot Teshuvah<\/em> 4:4) that one who gazes at forbidden sights is unlikely to repent this sin, since most people take this offense lightly. People say, \u201cDid I sin or even come close to this woman?\u201d They do not realize that sinning with one\u2019s eyes is a serious iniquity, which is the direct cause of immorality.<\/p>\n

It is forbidden to gesture with one\u2019s hands or feet, or to hint to any type of immorality. He may not joke with a strange woman or act toward her with light-headedness. He may not even smell her perfume or stare at her beauty. One who intentionally takes pleasure in a strange woman\u2019s beauty will be severely punished. Even enjoying the sight of her small finger is comparable to gazing at her nakedness (Rambam<\/em>, Hilchot Issurei Biah<\/em> 25:2).<\/p>\n

The one who truly loves Hashem does not see the faces of women (Reishit Chochmah<\/em> in the name of the Rokeach<\/em>, Sha\u2019ar HaAhavah<\/em> 1).<\/p>\n

Rav Eliyahu Lopian (Lev Eliyahu<\/em> II, 36) says: Eyes of flesh and blood do not have their own power of sight. They are merely windows through which sunlight enters. Do windows produce light? The power of vision is a spiritual force, located in a person\u2019s brain. From there, nerves connect to the windows, which are man\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n

Defilement enters through these windows. For that reason, Chazal forbid a person from looking into the face of a rasha. This is not merely a level of the devout, but a clear prohibition for everyone. One who transgresses will find his mind filled with foreign thoughts and improper ideas. He will wonder where these thoughts came from. What caused such urges to overtake him? He may be beset by thoughts of arrogance or the like, even though he usually has no connection to such things. What happened was that the rasha\u2019s spirit of defilement clung to him simply by the fact that he looked at the rasha. The wicked man\u2019s urges and feelings entered his system, through his eyes, and prepared a place for him in Gehinnom, rachmana litzlan<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201c\u2026 And not explore after your heart and after your eyes after which you stray\u201d (Bamidbar 15:39) The Midrash relates (Yalkut Shimoni, Vayechi 161) a fascinating tale: Rabbi Mattia ben Charash was sitting in the Beit Hamidrash, engrossed in Torah study. His face shone like the sun, and his countenance was like that of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":99917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-protecting-ones-eyes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}