BATTLE OF THE EYES
By: Rabbi
Yitzchak Schwartz
Shalom and Blessings
AN OVERVIEW
1. 'And Bilaam lifted up his eyes and he saw Israel dwelling...' [Parshat Balak chapter 23 verse 2].
The classic commentary of Rashi states that Bilaam wanted to attack Israel with 'AYIN HARA'--the Evil Eye. I'd like to jump right in at this point and describe to you what the evil-eye-attack that Bilaam intended to inflict is, but first, let's get a bit oriented. Bilaam was one of the most powerful magicians or sorcerers ever to walk the face of the earth. He was commissioned by another sorcerer of his stature, named Balak, after whom our Parsha is named. The Moabite King, Balak, was in great fear of the Children of Israel, and together with Bilaam they set out to unleash the full force of their deadly magic and curses in order to stop the Israelites in their tracks. Bilaam was Divinely granted a very high level of prophecy [in order to counter the claims of the Gentiles of his day, who felt that it wasn't fair that only the Israelites should receive high-level-prophecy]. Despite all of Bilaam's and Balak's attempts to find the weak point or the Achilles heal of the Israeli nation, he couldn't. Instead, all of his attempts to curse the Israelites turned into blessings. [Its important to point out, that much later in history, most of the intended effects of his curses, did come into being]. At the end of the Parsha, sort of as an afterthought, these men's evil deigns succeeded. There was a cunning trap set in the wilderness in a place called Shittim [a place of extreme danger and vulnerability]. The morally weakest elements of the nation fell into a 'lusting' that ultimately was responsible for a deathly plague causing the loss of 24000 lives.
CORRECT SEEING
2. In order to understand the underlying dynamic of our Parsha, I'd like to introduce an extremely important principle which we'll call "Correct Seeing'. There are 3 phases involved in seeing correctly;
a. SEE AND KEEP QUIET-----When we first see something, we see the whole scope or panorama, but generally speaking we see what we see in an external, surface level way. Rather than jumping to any conclusions, saying anything or taking action based on this first impression, Correct Seeing dictates to us to look and keep quiet. Our sages teach, 'An aid to wisdom is keeping quiet' [Kabbalah equates seeing with wisdom]!
b. ANALYZE WHAT YOU SEE----- After seeing what you see, engage in an in-depth analysis of what you saw [interestingly enough, the Hebrew word for this type of analysis is 'IYUN' which comes from the root-word 'AYIN' or EYE]. Ask yourself, 'What will result if I think, speak or act upon what I saw in a certain way? What does Hashem want of me?'
c. NOW ACT UPON IT------Only after you've analyzed, then make your decisions, speak your mind or do whatever actions are called for.
The crucial distinction is to not jump from phase A of initial seeing straight to phase C of acting upon it, unless you interject Phase B of analysis first!!
CORRECT SEEING----SUMMER'S TIKUN
3. The ancient Kabbalistic classic, 'Sefer Yetzira', teaches that the Summer Hebrew Calendar months, Tamuz, Av and Elul [loosely paralleling the period from late June till early September], correspond to the three senses or traits of seeing, hearing and acting. These 3 traits are themselves the same 3 phases that we have been discussing [Kabbalah equates hearing to the Sefira 'Bina'--analysis or the process of understanding one thing from another and coming up with the appropriate conclusions]. If we were to look at the underlying and essential point of all the Parshas that take place in this summer period, we'd see that they are all stressing this 3-step-process. We'd see that all failures resulted from not injecting the middle step, and all their successes came from doing it right. Now let's get back to the main point which we began our essay with.
BATTLE OF THE EYES
4. 'AYIN TOVA' a good eye, can be conveyed by describing a person who engages in Correct Seeing. A verse states ' Ayin Tov Yevorach' [a good eyed person is a source of Blessing]. When a person's actions are calculated and merged with their deepest Divinely inspired will, then all that this person sets their eyes on will be blessed. 'AYIN HARA' -an evil eye, works in a diametrically opposite fashion. A person sees something, and immediately without thinking, jumps! They want it for themselves now, and they're jealous of the fact that the other person has it and not them. The danger involved to all sides is huge. When a person engages life and people with an AYIN HARA approach, the Kabbalah teaches that they join forces with the powers of evil in the world and can inflict incredible harm! The Talmud states that the root cause of an overwhelming majority of people's deaths is AYIN HARA! There are a number of ways of protecting oneself from AYIN HARA, such as being very pure, keeping secluded, not giving it any credence, seeing others with a good eye and other ways...
The source of Bilaam's and anyone else's power of black magic and sorcery [ which may be loosely defined as a drawing down energy from a G-dless lower level realm in order to manipulate nature and people] is AYIN HARA---purposely not seeing G-d's perfect unified purpose in all that they encounter!! Bilaam enlisted AYIN HARA to attempt to bring on the downfall of the Children of Israel. Israel was however too absorbed in AYIN TOVA--Correct Seeing--- for Bilaam to succeed for the most part. Israel won the 'Battle of the Eyes'. Can we today in our lives do the same?! Here's a tool to help us;
CORRECT SEEING--A TOOL
5. a. Journalize all that you SEE in life; the past, present and all that you expect to be seeing in the future. You can make your lists as limited or expanded as you wish...
b. Now judge how much of what you see is 'correct seeing'----Do you analyze what you see, or jump to premature conclusions?
c. The Tikun is to take upon yourself for the present and future [and you can do Tshuva for the past] to begin applying the principle of Correct Seeing. Begin by getting use to asking yourself the questions that we discussed earlier---i.e. 'What would happen if I react in various ways? What does Hashem want of me in this situation?'
Shabbat Shalom
Yitzchak
Website: http://www.paradiseprinciple.com/
Email: yitzchakschwartz@msn.com
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