By: Rabbi Yitzchak Schwartz
****for the iluy neshama of Yosef HaTzadik --today and
R. Yechiel ben Shmuel
Shalom—tonight zichronam livracha****
Shalom—tonight zichronam livracha****
This is an exploration into healing and preventing
Ayin Hara.
The evil eye is a phenomenon which is referred to as one of the “bubba-maises,” meaning “tall tales from our grandmothers’’ in the Yiddish culture. But Sages in the revealed and esoteric worlds offer accounts of the evil eye, and the very real damage it can cause. It is said that 999 out of 1000 people die as a result of the evil eye, something we don’t usually think about. Those are big numbers.
Personally, when I get ‘check-ups’ as a result of difficult situations I’m caught up in, and I’ve heard the same from others as well, it appears that the responsibility lies with the evil eye. It is as though we are “zapped” by someone who looks at us askance, with a narrow, constricted view. This phenomenon is responsible not only for death but for a lot of the problems in life that are difficult to connect to a cause.
It’s all about fixing the Yesod, which is one the main Sefirot that corresponds to sexuality. We will see how this is all connected in a minute, but the idea here is that the evil eye is something we must contend with, to cope with in our lives. It was discussed it the Parsha when Jacob gives Joseph [who corresponds to the Sefirah –Yesod] a blessing; Joseph represents the opposite of the evil eye, the epitome of a person who is safe from the evil eye.
Jacob’s blessing for Joseph was as follows: ‘’Ben porat Yosef. Ben porat alei ayin.’’ Loosely translated, this means, “Joseph is the son of fruitfulness and the son of an uplifted eye.”
We can see in this verse the antidote to the evil eye. Instead of vulnerability and susceptibility to an evil eye, we can choose to practice having an uplifted or “Heavenly Eye, alei ayin.” This practice keeps us from being susceptible.
Joseph is compared to the fish in the sea that are swimming around with open eyes, our Sages tell us, because they have no fear. They are under water or under cover so to speak, and in that sense they are safe.
I’d like to show some examples , from the more natural to the more extra-ordinary, what it means to have this antidote of a Heavenly Eye that protects us from damage as a result of the Ayin Hara or evil eye.
We begin by looking at what our Sages say about elevating our eyes. King David says, “I will lift up my eyes to the mountains,” meaning a whole different way of seeing, or seeing in an uplifted way.
Another verse of his tell us, “Lift up your eyes to the heights.”
Our Sages tell us that a wise person is one who has ‘’his eyes in his head’’, meaning in the upper part of the body instead of the lower parts. It means we need to look toward the higher things in our lives.
We are taught that our souls were shown incredible things prior to coming into this world, including what we should be able to accomplish here. We had spiritual seeing before coming into our bodies, and therefore our souls are always driven to see ourselves with an uplifted eye.
When we don’t see in an uplifted way we are condemned to see in a lowly and constricted way, which leaves us vulnerable to others who are seeing in a lowly and constricted way. And then, measure for measure, they have power over us. When we constrict our vision, then people with stingy and evil vision have power over us because we are not looking at things in a heavenly way, which is the antidote we need to counteract the Ayin Hara, or the evil eye.
So we have what we need to understand here, although there are a lot of interesting Kabbalistic remedies for the evil eye, but on the simplest level, saying the verse mentioned, Ben porat Yosef. Ben porat alei ayin, and saying it backwards [the letters of each word] and forwards as you stand next to a Mezuzah is said to get rid of the evil eye. There are other methods, including working with cups and working with eggs, but my point here is not to get into all the remedies for the evil eye.
My point here is to take note of the spiritual, moral remedy to the evil eye. It is to counteract the evil eye with a good eye, an elevated eye. And we want to understand how to do that, how to make that work for us.
We begin by saying that the reasons why a person may be afflicted with Ayin Hara and is therefore susceptible to it may be many. Very simply, it means that a person themself has a constricted way of seeing. But another reason may be that a person calls too much attention to themself by showing off, “Look at me! Look at my wealth, look at my goodness, look at how much I have accomplished!” This behavior is probably the most significant reason a person may attract the evil eye.
We are better off not showing off what we have to the rest of the world, neither spiritually nor materialistically----better to not bring attention to ourselves in this way, with some exceptions of course.
There are differences in how we share “the good stuff,” and it is partially a matter of knowing different social groups. Moroccan Jews, for example, it seems , are much more aware and conscientious of the Ayin Hara than American Jews. That makes Moroccans more susceptible to it. Perhaps a reason for this is what our Sages teach us that the more a thing is real to us, the more we are susceptible to it. And the less real it is to us in our lives, the less susceptible we are to it, the less we are likely to be zapped by the Ayin Hara. Perhaps the Morrocan Jew is more real with all of this than the American Jew [Perhaps the religious Jew more than the non-religious Jew]…
However, one caveat that must be interjected here is that being ignorant of the supernatural has its disadvantages as well because an ignorant person doesn’t have access to the information, either good or bad. In other words, it matters how real we are with this type of thing.
Another reason we may be afflicted with the evil eye is our anger. Anger reveals a constricted eye. An angry person is looking at someone with a narrow eye and that is why they are angry.
Looking at a person with a narrow eye will bring the evil eye, measure for measure. A person who looks at others in a constricted way will be looked at that way, too. Divine Providence works in “mirroring” fashion.
Another reason we may experience the evil eye is our own paranoia about how other people see us. Sometimes we can be too worried about how others are looking at us and that brings the evil eye into our lives. In a way, it is sort of the opposite of the Law of Attraction [ie…attracting negativity and not our positive desired projection]. So we have to be careful, especially when we are looking at “what is not mine.”
Living in Emunah, living in Faith means we begin to understand, “what is meant for me,” and not for anyone else. Everything in the world is not meant for me. Everyone has his or her own separate, Divine channels and connection to Divine Providence. We don’t have to get into competition or jealousy with what belongs to others. What is meant for another person is not meant for me.
Modesty is a huge, very important way we can protect ourselves. Modesty means we “cover up,” literally, physically, but also spiritually as well. The Sages say that a blessing rests on that which is hidden from the eye. As long as they eye does not rest on what we have, we are not revealing it to ourselves, even in calculations of our income. There are certain limitations in terms of overdoing it, and they have the ability to bring blessings to our income.
Our blessing rests on that which is hidden from the eye. That is what our Sages say.
Also, if we do sense that there is a person in our lives who is miserly, with a constricted, bad eye, it is not good to consume, to receive or eat what is received from such a person. Doing so can bring that energy into our lives as well. We need to distance ourselves from this type of person.
Another way to be careful is to avoid looking at the wealth and abundance other people have. In general we need to look at the world and at whatever other people have with a good eye.
What are the signs of someone who looks at the world and at other people with a good eye?
A person who volunteers a lot, who gives a lot of themselves, who gives charity and helps others give charity. A person who gives, even in business, more than is deserved, beyond the normal, expected exchange. A person who is accustomed to praising other people, individuals and entire nations. A person who looks at others as they would have others look at them. That is a “good eye person.” It is a person who looks at others’ merit, even at others who are constricted eye people. A good eye person can look at others and totally shift them, totally change them.
Rebbe Nachman of Breslev says you can look at everyone and eventually begin to see the good in them. In fact, you begin to bring out the good in everyone.
We are talking about looking at what belongs to you and not that which belongs to other people, and also wanting the best for others. That is a sign of a good eye person as well.
As in King Soloman’s Proverbs, ‘Tov Ayin Yevurach’, ‘The good eyed person is the blessed person.’ They are blessed and they bless others as well.
What we want to do, is to look at people in a good way. We want to raise our eyes to see them in a good way.
I saw some beautiful ideas from other Chassidic writing in the writings of Rebbe Tzvi Meir Zilberberg shlit’’a.
1) To the extent that we are detached from physical senses, specifically seeing, then we open up our spiritual seeing. Our physical sight is only a garment of our spiritual sight.
For example, at the end of Jacob’s life we read, “the eyes of Jacob were heavy from age…” A simple understanding would be that he was an old man and it was hard for him to see. But that was not the full meaning of the phrase. The deeper understanding is this – Jacob was so familiar with seeing in a Divine, blessed, heavenly way that he saw everything in terms of its pure spirituality.
The heaviness of seeing that Jacob achieved in his old age, his last 17 years, the best years of his life, was not physical, material seeing. It was spiritual seeing, to the point that when his son Joseph brought his own sons to Jacob for his blessing on them in the last days of Jacob’s life, Jacob had to ask, “Who are these?” Even though he had known these children for 17 years Jacob was so entrenched in spiritual seeing that it took some effort for him to come out of that realm to identify them.
When a person is inside spiritual, heavenly seeing he will get deep insights and clarity. He will see the Divine Presence, the Shechina. He will see unbelievable things.
One of the great contemporary fears of the son of the Baba Sali [A’H], Baba Meir [A’H], centers around the story of a kidnapped girl. Her parents were told of a special tzaddik in the Land of Israel who had long-distance seeing. Although he had never been to London, when they came to ask him the location of the kidnapped girl, he closed his eyes and saw a map of London. He drew the map, based on his spiritual seeing and he pointed out exactly where the girl was located. And she was there. The case was solved with spiritual seeing.
The Sages say, “See your future world in your lifetime.” It is a blessing they gave each other. Seeing your Garden of Eden while you are still in this lifetime.
King David said, “Gal einei,” unravel the blinders from my eyes to see the wonders of your Torah. We can see the “Ohr Ha Ganuz,” the hidden light from one end of the world to the other, from one end of any process or construct to the other, including our own lives, anything and everything.
Just as in the language of the Eskimos there are many different words for “snow,” in the Hebrew language there are a lot of different words for “see.” We have “roeh,” and “mabat,” and “tsofeh,” and ‘choze’ and more…..I’m not going to translate them all, just for lack of time, but we have very subtle understandings of differences in spiritual seeing. Prophetic seeing, inner-mind seeing, overseeing Divine Providence, seeing which is knowing and selective seeing of goodness. Enlightenment is seeing the Light. The eye is the window of the soul and in the Messianic times we will see that which has been hidden from us. That which is blurry will become clear. That which is hidden will become revealed.
So, when we get rid of the tendency towards constricted seeing that is attached to temporary, tentative, disempowering perspectives, then we can experience the good eye, which ultimately protects us from the results of constricted seeing, and from the evil eye.
Blessings,
yitzchak
Yitzchak
The evil eye is a phenomenon which is referred to as one of the “bubba-maises,” meaning “tall tales from our grandmothers’’ in the Yiddish culture. But Sages in the revealed and esoteric worlds offer accounts of the evil eye, and the very real damage it can cause. It is said that 999 out of 1000 people die as a result of the evil eye, something we don’t usually think about. Those are big numbers.
Personally, when I get ‘check-ups’ as a result of difficult situations I’m caught up in, and I’ve heard the same from others as well, it appears that the responsibility lies with the evil eye. It is as though we are “zapped” by someone who looks at us askance, with a narrow, constricted view. This phenomenon is responsible not only for death but for a lot of the problems in life that are difficult to connect to a cause.
It’s all about fixing the Yesod, which is one the main Sefirot that corresponds to sexuality. We will see how this is all connected in a minute, but the idea here is that the evil eye is something we must contend with, to cope with in our lives. It was discussed it the Parsha when Jacob gives Joseph [who corresponds to the Sefirah –Yesod] a blessing; Joseph represents the opposite of the evil eye, the epitome of a person who is safe from the evil eye.
Jacob’s blessing for Joseph was as follows: ‘’Ben porat Yosef. Ben porat alei ayin.’’ Loosely translated, this means, “Joseph is the son of fruitfulness and the son of an uplifted eye.”
We can see in this verse the antidote to the evil eye. Instead of vulnerability and susceptibility to an evil eye, we can choose to practice having an uplifted or “Heavenly Eye, alei ayin.” This practice keeps us from being susceptible.
Joseph is compared to the fish in the sea that are swimming around with open eyes, our Sages tell us, because they have no fear. They are under water or under cover so to speak, and in that sense they are safe.
I’d like to show some examples , from the more natural to the more extra-ordinary, what it means to have this antidote of a Heavenly Eye that protects us from damage as a result of the Ayin Hara or evil eye.
We begin by looking at what our Sages say about elevating our eyes. King David says, “I will lift up my eyes to the mountains,” meaning a whole different way of seeing, or seeing in an uplifted way.
Another verse of his tell us, “Lift up your eyes to the heights.”
Our Sages tell us that a wise person is one who has ‘’his eyes in his head’’, meaning in the upper part of the body instead of the lower parts. It means we need to look toward the higher things in our lives.
We are taught that our souls were shown incredible things prior to coming into this world, including what we should be able to accomplish here. We had spiritual seeing before coming into our bodies, and therefore our souls are always driven to see ourselves with an uplifted eye.
When we don’t see in an uplifted way we are condemned to see in a lowly and constricted way, which leaves us vulnerable to others who are seeing in a lowly and constricted way. And then, measure for measure, they have power over us. When we constrict our vision, then people with stingy and evil vision have power over us because we are not looking at things in a heavenly way, which is the antidote we need to counteract the Ayin Hara, or the evil eye.
So we have what we need to understand here, although there are a lot of interesting Kabbalistic remedies for the evil eye, but on the simplest level, saying the verse mentioned, Ben porat Yosef. Ben porat alei ayin, and saying it backwards [the letters of each word] and forwards as you stand next to a Mezuzah is said to get rid of the evil eye. There are other methods, including working with cups and working with eggs, but my point here is not to get into all the remedies for the evil eye.
My point here is to take note of the spiritual, moral remedy to the evil eye. It is to counteract the evil eye with a good eye, an elevated eye. And we want to understand how to do that, how to make that work for us.
We begin by saying that the reasons why a person may be afflicted with Ayin Hara and is therefore susceptible to it may be many. Very simply, it means that a person themself has a constricted way of seeing. But another reason may be that a person calls too much attention to themself by showing off, “Look at me! Look at my wealth, look at my goodness, look at how much I have accomplished!” This behavior is probably the most significant reason a person may attract the evil eye.
We are better off not showing off what we have to the rest of the world, neither spiritually nor materialistically----better to not bring attention to ourselves in this way, with some exceptions of course.
There are differences in how we share “the good stuff,” and it is partially a matter of knowing different social groups. Moroccan Jews, for example, it seems , are much more aware and conscientious of the Ayin Hara than American Jews. That makes Moroccans more susceptible to it. Perhaps a reason for this is what our Sages teach us that the more a thing is real to us, the more we are susceptible to it. And the less real it is to us in our lives, the less susceptible we are to it, the less we are likely to be zapped by the Ayin Hara. Perhaps the Morrocan Jew is more real with all of this than the American Jew [Perhaps the religious Jew more than the non-religious Jew]…
However, one caveat that must be interjected here is that being ignorant of the supernatural has its disadvantages as well because an ignorant person doesn’t have access to the information, either good or bad. In other words, it matters how real we are with this type of thing.
Another reason we may be afflicted with the evil eye is our anger. Anger reveals a constricted eye. An angry person is looking at someone with a narrow eye and that is why they are angry.
Looking at a person with a narrow eye will bring the evil eye, measure for measure. A person who looks at others in a constricted way will be looked at that way, too. Divine Providence works in “mirroring” fashion.
Another reason we may experience the evil eye is our own paranoia about how other people see us. Sometimes we can be too worried about how others are looking at us and that brings the evil eye into our lives. In a way, it is sort of the opposite of the Law of Attraction [ie…attracting negativity and not our positive desired projection]. So we have to be careful, especially when we are looking at “what is not mine.”
Living in Emunah, living in Faith means we begin to understand, “what is meant for me,” and not for anyone else. Everything in the world is not meant for me. Everyone has his or her own separate, Divine channels and connection to Divine Providence. We don’t have to get into competition or jealousy with what belongs to others. What is meant for another person is not meant for me.
Modesty is a huge, very important way we can protect ourselves. Modesty means we “cover up,” literally, physically, but also spiritually as well. The Sages say that a blessing rests on that which is hidden from the eye. As long as they eye does not rest on what we have, we are not revealing it to ourselves, even in calculations of our income. There are certain limitations in terms of overdoing it, and they have the ability to bring blessings to our income.
Our blessing rests on that which is hidden from the eye. That is what our Sages say.
Also, if we do sense that there is a person in our lives who is miserly, with a constricted, bad eye, it is not good to consume, to receive or eat what is received from such a person. Doing so can bring that energy into our lives as well. We need to distance ourselves from this type of person.
Another way to be careful is to avoid looking at the wealth and abundance other people have. In general we need to look at the world and at whatever other people have with a good eye.
What are the signs of someone who looks at the world and at other people with a good eye?
A person who volunteers a lot, who gives a lot of themselves, who gives charity and helps others give charity. A person who gives, even in business, more than is deserved, beyond the normal, expected exchange. A person who is accustomed to praising other people, individuals and entire nations. A person who looks at others as they would have others look at them. That is a “good eye person.” It is a person who looks at others’ merit, even at others who are constricted eye people. A good eye person can look at others and totally shift them, totally change them.
Rebbe Nachman of Breslev says you can look at everyone and eventually begin to see the good in them. In fact, you begin to bring out the good in everyone.
We are talking about looking at what belongs to you and not that which belongs to other people, and also wanting the best for others. That is a sign of a good eye person as well.
As in King Soloman’s Proverbs, ‘Tov Ayin Yevurach’, ‘The good eyed person is the blessed person.’ They are blessed and they bless others as well.
What we want to do, is to look at people in a good way. We want to raise our eyes to see them in a good way.
I saw some beautiful ideas from other Chassidic writing in the writings of Rebbe Tzvi Meir Zilberberg shlit’’a.
1) To the extent that we are detached from physical senses, specifically seeing, then we open up our spiritual seeing. Our physical sight is only a garment of our spiritual sight.
For example, at the end of Jacob’s life we read, “the eyes of Jacob were heavy from age…” A simple understanding would be that he was an old man and it was hard for him to see. But that was not the full meaning of the phrase. The deeper understanding is this – Jacob was so familiar with seeing in a Divine, blessed, heavenly way that he saw everything in terms of its pure spirituality.
The heaviness of seeing that Jacob achieved in his old age, his last 17 years, the best years of his life, was not physical, material seeing. It was spiritual seeing, to the point that when his son Joseph brought his own sons to Jacob for his blessing on them in the last days of Jacob’s life, Jacob had to ask, “Who are these?” Even though he had known these children for 17 years Jacob was so entrenched in spiritual seeing that it took some effort for him to come out of that realm to identify them.
When a person is inside spiritual, heavenly seeing he will get deep insights and clarity. He will see the Divine Presence, the Shechina. He will see unbelievable things.
One of the great contemporary fears of the son of the Baba Sali [A’H], Baba Meir [A’H], centers around the story of a kidnapped girl. Her parents were told of a special tzaddik in the Land of Israel who had long-distance seeing. Although he had never been to London, when they came to ask him the location of the kidnapped girl, he closed his eyes and saw a map of London. He drew the map, based on his spiritual seeing and he pointed out exactly where the girl was located. And she was there. The case was solved with spiritual seeing.
The Sages say, “See your future world in your lifetime.” It is a blessing they gave each other. Seeing your Garden of Eden while you are still in this lifetime.
King David said, “Gal einei,” unravel the blinders from my eyes to see the wonders of your Torah. We can see the “Ohr Ha Ganuz,” the hidden light from one end of the world to the other, from one end of any process or construct to the other, including our own lives, anything and everything.
Just as in the language of the Eskimos there are many different words for “snow,” in the Hebrew language there are a lot of different words for “see.” We have “roeh,” and “mabat,” and “tsofeh,” and ‘choze’ and more…..I’m not going to translate them all, just for lack of time, but we have very subtle understandings of differences in spiritual seeing. Prophetic seeing, inner-mind seeing, overseeing Divine Providence, seeing which is knowing and selective seeing of goodness. Enlightenment is seeing the Light. The eye is the window of the soul and in the Messianic times we will see that which has been hidden from us. That which is blurry will become clear. That which is hidden will become revealed.
So, when we get rid of the tendency towards constricted seeing that is attached to temporary, tentative, disempowering perspectives, then we can experience the good eye, which ultimately protects us from the results of constricted seeing, and from the evil eye.
Blessings,
yitzchak
Yitzchak
Website: http://www.paradiseprinciple.com/
Email: yitzchakschwartz@msn.com
Picture taken from © & ™ Lucas film Ltd.
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