Yosef HaTzaddik - "Holy Eyes"

A DISCOURSE GIVEN TO YESHIVA STUDENTS ON

PARSHAS VAYEISHEV 

Transcribed and translated from previous recordings of

HARAV ELIEZER BERLAND SHLIT”A

The holiness of Yosef sanctified the whole world. What was so special about Yosef HaTzaddik? The way he guarded his eyes. Yosef guarded his eyes. He never opened his eyes. And through this he sanctified the entire expanse of the world. He went through such horrible sufferings, such difficult tests—one year in the house of Potifar and 12 years in prison. The Midrash relates that the wife of Potifar would come to Yosef three times a day to tempt him. Every day she would come and stab him with pins and needles, with iron combs, as it says in Tehillim 105 about Yosef HaTzaddik, “His soul was placed in irons.” She would say to him, “I’ll blind your eyes. I will take out your eyes.” Yosef would answer her “Hashem gives sight to the blind. Hashem will open my eyes.” She would stick pins into him under his chin so that he would lift up his head and look, but he never opened his eyes. When she said to him, “I will knock you down and humiliate you,” he would answer, “He straightens the bent.” “You’ll be imprisoned for life—you’ll never get out of here!” He would answer, “He releases the imprisoned” (Morning Blessings).

The holiness of Yosef sanctified the whole world. When Yosef was alive, even the ground was holy. And this is the explanation of the verse, “…for their selling a righteous man for money and a poor man for shoes” (Amos 2:6). The brothers sold Yosef “for shoes.” How do you explain the phrase “for shoes”? No one sells his own brother for shoes! Who has ever heard of such a thing, that you sell your brother for shoes? Didn’t they have shoes? A student of the GR”A in his book “Pelach HaRimon,” writes that at the time, when Yosef HaTzaddik totally guarded his eyes, he sanctified the entire expanse of the world—including the whole land of Israel . The entire land of Israel was sanctified with the holiness of the Beis HaMikdash, so everyone could walk around in Israel without shoes, just as they did in the Beis HaMikdash due to the holiness. So too, in the time of Yosef, they could go everywhere without shoes! There was such holiness that with each and every step, no one felt any pricks from thorns, no one was pierced by stones—but this was only when they believed in Yosef and weren’t thinking of selling him. Then nothing would prick them—the thorns were holy and everything was holy.

The brothers didn’t know who the tzaddik was, and in whose merit the land was filled with holiness. Everyone though it might be in his own merit. They didn’t believe it was in Yosef’s merit. The moment that they sold Yosef, everything stopped. They didn’t feel the holiness of the land, and the earth was just regular dirt. Suddenly they felt that everything pricked them—everything hurt them—and immediately they needed shoes. The Yerushalmi in Masechet Peah says that Yosef reproved his brothers for looking at the women of the land. He said to them, “What are you looking at?” They answered him, “It doesn’t harm us.” But Yosef held that even if a man is holy and pure and looking doesn’t damage him, it’s still forbidden to look because the nature of seeing is that it damages. Reb Nosson explains that out of the eyes shine such strong lights, such wondrous lights. All of a man’s life force comes through his eyes—all of his G-dly soul and all of his animal soul. He transfers to whatever he looks at, because, essentially, the power of sight transfers energy—it transfers life force. When a person who is full of Torah, full of prayer, and full of G-dliness looks at the klippot, at evildoers, or at goyim, then he gives them his life force and strength. Regarding this Yosef reproved his brothers, “even though your looking doesn’t damage you, still, you are the forefathers of the tribes of Hashem, elevated holy people, but the nature of looking is that it transfers the energy to the Sitra Achra and the powers of tumah, and that is why it is forbidden for you to look.”

The Tur writes in Orach Chaim 1, that the Tanna explained that “swift as an eagle” refers to the faculty of sight, which is compared to an eagle gliding through the air. That is to say that you should strengthen your eyes to refrain from seeing bad things since this is the beginning of sin—that the eyes sees and the heart desires, and the rest of the body finishes the job. “Be as swift to shut your eyes as an eagle [flies].” Thus the Tur begins his great work! If a person opens his eyes and goes around looking at everything, all the Torah that he learns goes to the klippot, to the enemies, to the evildoers—everything goes to them, and he enlivens them and gives them power. Because their existence comes from you, their vitality—their power—is derived from what you learned. If you learned ten hours and said 600,000 letters, then when you look and see forbidden things, you enliven all the klippot, and all the 600,000 letters go to them! If you wouldn’t have looked at them they wouldn’t have had any power or life force.

If a person goes out into the street and guards his eyes, he raises up all the sparks trapped in the klippot. When a man closes his eyes, he burns up the klippot. In every klippa there is a holy spark, and the moment that a man passes by on the street while guarding his eyes, the spark is freed and flies to the kedusha. The Kamarna Rebbe writes in “Heichal HaBracha” (parshas Miketz) that at the time of the creation of the world sparks were deposited in the streets and markets and that they are waiting for someone to come and raise them up, for someone to come and fix them. But one can only elevate them when he closes his eyes. The G-dly spark is found in every place, but you can’t see it. The reason it can’t be seen is that when you open your eyes and look, you see only the klippa. And then, by looking at the klippa, you create another klippa and then yet a further klippa. Therefore, a person must control himself: Don’t look! If you look then more klippot are created, and then more. The holy spark that is stuck in the klippa remains inside—it is imprisoned there, and it shouts at you, “Don’t look! My brother, have mercy on me, free me. When you look at me you bury me. You tie me up with more and more chains.” The spark begs the person, “My brother, have mercy on me. Free me from this prison. If you don’t look, you will bring the Geulah. Until now, no one has redeemed me or fixed me. Have mercy on me and release me from prison: Don’t look! In one instant of not looking, you can knock down an infinite number of walls and infinite number of klippot that are surrounding me.”

Understand this well, if an angel were to pass through the street, no tikkunim (rectifications) would be done, no sparks would be raised up, since he doesn’t have a yetzer hara to look. He has no yetzer hara for the tumah, but people, who are made of flesh and blood, need tremendous mesirus nefesh to guard their eyes. The whole time that they are passing through the streets and markets they are undergoing the most extreme trials, and by guarding their eyes, they raise up and fix all the sparks that are found there.

From Tzama Nafshi (Hebrew)