Certainly a Person Can Guard Their Eyes! Parshat Kedoshim from the Esteemed

In Parshat Kedoshim we are commanded, "You shall be holy," but what is the true meaning of holiness in the service of Hashem? In sharp and piercing words, the honorable and holy Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a clarifies that a Jew's primary aspiration is not to be famous, to attain high levels, or to be a "baal ruach hakodesh" (master of holy spirit) – but rather to struggle with self-sacrifice for the preservation of holiness, for the purity of the eyes, and for the holiness of the covenant. This is the true war of every Jew, and this is the purpose of life in this world.

These are his holy words:

The people of Israel are a holy nation! The people of Israel seek only to work on holiness and purity! They do not seek to attain "prophecies" or "levels," which is what the nations of the world and people who do not know the ways of serving Hashem seek. The mistake of Bilaam and all the nations of the world is that for them, the main thing is to be a great person! An important person! A famous person! But the people of Israel seek only one thing! How to work on holiness and purity, which is the opposite of all the methods and all the teachings of the nations of the world, who do not know what holiness is; they do not even recognize the concept of holiness at all!

The holy people of Israel do not settle for mere words; for them, one first begins to work on holiness, on guarding the eyes, on the holiness of the covenant, and they fight for these things! They fight to be saved from the prohibition of "And you shall not wander after your heart and after your eyes," even though it is very difficult and a person sees almost no possibility of being saved from it, but he knows that he must fight it; he has no choice, for this he came into the world... and this is what is written in "Even Shleima" from the Vilna Gaon, that a person comes into the world only to overcome this thing, only for this he came into the world, not for anything else; all other things come to assist holiness.

People think that holiness is a secondary matter; there are 613 commandments, and there is also the prohibition of "And you shall not wander." The Rambam says, "Twenty-four things hinder teshuvah (repentance)... and he does not know that the sight of the eyes is a great sin, for it leads to the body of forbidden sexual relations, as it is said (Numbers 15:39), 'And you shall not wander after your heart and after your eyes'" (Rambam, Laws of Teshuvah, Chapter 4). The Rambam says that all those who think it is possible to skip the prohibition of "And you shall not wander," to put it in parentheses! To put it aside! To say, "There are 613 commandments... so one commandment I am not careful about... after all, not everyone is meticulous in all the commandments? I am meticulous in being a genius, in being famous, in being a master of holy spirit, but to be meticulous in the prohibition of 'And you shall not wander,' I have no time for that, it is not possible for me, I am a busy person, I drive a car..."

In truth, the world is in error! Certainly, a person can guard their eyes! Even a person who drives can guard their eyes; he can ask Hashem to guard his eyes for him! Because through prayer, it is possible to attain everything. Avraham Avinu walked throughout the world in holiness and did not see anything! And likewise, the sons of Yaakov Avinu walked from Israel to the land of Egypt, and they did not open their eyes the entire way! The Midrash says that they did not see anything on the way. A person can travel throughout the world while guarding their eyes! It is certainly possible to guard the eyes on the road.

The Rambam says, "He who looks at forbidden sexual relations and says that there is nothing in it," a person blemishes his eyes and says, 'What did I do?! What sin did I commit?! It does not affect me negatively,' this is a lie!!

It is told that the "Beit Yisrael" met with several professors. They asked him, "Why are the Haredim so afraid of every sight and every glance, while for us professors, these things do not affect us at all and do not bother us?" He said to them: "To what can this be compared? To a Bedouin and a European. The Bedouin walks all day on stones, on thorns, on thistles; from the day he was born, he walks on the sharpest stones, and it does not bother him at all; he does not feel any pain (due to habit). Whereas a European person, if a tiny bit of stone gets into his shoe, a tiny bit of sand, he can no longer walk! His foot hurts him! He has terrible suffering from it." The analogy is that you professors are like the Bedouins; you have already defiled yourselves so much with endless impurities, so a small stone, a small sin, a sight, a forbidden glance, no longer affects you! But a person who is entirely delicate of soul, entirely pure of soul, every smallest thing, every smallest sin, every forbidden look, every forbidden sight, it bothers him! It hurts him! It stabs him like the stabs of a sword!

A person's choice is only in the eyes! The moment a person guards their eyes, they will reach all the levels in the world; they will not speak lashon hara (evil speech), they will not be resentful, they will not hate, they will keep Shabbat, they will put on tefillin... And one must guard not only the physical eyes, but also the eyes of the intellect must be guarded! A person can guard their physical eyes, but they have endless other eyes! Eyes of jealousy, eyes of hatred, eyes of honor; he must guard all types of eyes that he has! He must disconnect all his senses from the world! So that he has no eyes for anything in the world, for any subject in the world! Rather, all the senses and all the desires should be only for Hashem, may He be blessed, in His glory and essence. And when he guards his eyes (the physical eyes and the eyes of the intellect—jealousy, hatred...), then he merits, "Open my eyes and I will behold wonders from Your Torah"; all the secrets of the Torah, the secrets of creation, and all the wonders in the world are revealed to him.