A Lifestyle of Shmiras Einayim | Rabbi Yussie Zakutinsky

You know, everything in Yiddishkeit is very, very big. The Ribono shel Olam is big, which means that every Mitzvah he gives us is bigger than we think. And so this Inyan, this Avoda of Shmiras Einayim, we have to begin to expand our way of thinking about it. We tend to think that that whole Avoda of Shmiras Einayim is, simply put, not seeing things that we're not allowed to see, only seeing things that we're allowed to see. That's certainly true. And that's definitely the body of that Mitzvah, that Inyan of Shmiras Einayim. But as we develop in our Avodas Hashem, we have to begin to see things in a broader perspective. Shmiras Einayim is not just something that is a particular of life. There is an entire lifestyle which is called the lifestyle of Shmiras Einayim. There is a way of a person living in the world where the way they operate through life is one in which they are affected. Going through life where you are taking in everything and everything is affecting you and you are the receiver of everything around you, this is what it means a lifestyle without Shmiras Einayim. Even if your eyes are closed the whole time and you don't actually see anything. But the very fact that you are taking in influences from the outside and you don't have an inner voice and an inner direction and a drive within yourself, that's called a lack of Shmiras Einayim. What does it mean to have Shmiras Einayim? A lifestyle of Shmiras Einayim is a lifestyle in which a person operates throughout the day with a sense of purpose, a sense of mission, a sense of inner drive, and with a feeling and a compulsion that you are here to affect. You are not here to be affected. That's what it means to have Shmiras Einayim in a much broader sense. There was a Yid, who once came to the Ba’al Hatanya, with a whole laundry list of Inyanim that he needs. Parnasa and health and Shidduchim. A whole thing. And after he, you know, finished this whole Spiel, so the Ba’al Hatanya sat back and the Ba’al Hatanya said, ‘You've told me everything you need, ‘but you have not yet told me what you're needed for.’ That's a difference between no Shmiras Einayim, and yes Shmiras Einayim. Living a life of where it's all about what you need and what the world can provide for you, taking in from the world, that's a lifestyle of superficiality, it's a lifestyle of no Shmiras Einayim. The Avoda of Shmiras Einayim is to embrace the truth, which is we are all Shluchim. We were sent here from a higher place for one purpose and one purpose alone to turn this world into a Dira Batachtonim, into a place for God's presence. That's why we're here. Nothing more and nothing less. And when a person goes through life with that sense of purpose, that sense of mission, that’s called you are not seeing things, visions and colors and sensations are not entering into you. You are influencing the world. When you are influencing the world, there's simply not enough time for the world to influence you. Hashem should bless each and every one of us we should live a lifestyle of Shmiras Einayim, and with that come all the Brachas in the world.