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
