Connecting to Holiness | Rabbi Joey Dayon

The pasuk in Parashat Vayechi says, Yaakov Avinu wanted to give a Bracha to his grandchildren, Menashe and Efraim. And the pasuk says, since he wasn't able to see them, he hugged them and he kissed them. And the Seforno asks a question, Why is it relevant if Yaakov was able to see his grandchildren or not? They're his grandchildren. He should hug them and kiss them, regardless. And the Seforno explains that because seeing something or somebody is the greatest way to connect with it. So the first option for Yaakov Avinu was to be able to see his grandchildren. Once he wasn't able to see them, then he settled for the second best, which is to hug them and kiss them. We learn from here that seeing something gives the greatest connection to a person. It's been said that the eyes are the windows of a person's Neshama, and that's what connects to his Neshama the most. A few months ago, we had Rav Henoch Ginsburg came and gave a Schmooze in the Kollel where I study. He said: If you look around any Beit Midrash, you'll see hundreds of Sefarim all throughout the Beit Midrash. And even though there's hundreds of Sefarim, there's only one Parochet in a whole roomful of Sefarim. And he says: Really, there's Shas, there's Rambam, there's so many amazing Sefarim. How come there's only a Parochet over the Sefer Torah? He said: Because Chazal are sending a message to us. Even though all the Sefarim are very holy, but there's a new level of holiness to the Sefer Torah. The same can be said about a human body. If you think about it, we all only have one organ in our body that have two Parochets, and that's our two eyes. Hashem created us that our eyes have to eyelids. And it says that our eyes blink 15 times a minute on average. To teach us a lesson, there's not everything in life that we're supposed to connect to. If we want to connect our Neshama to certain things, we have to make sure that we connect only to things that are worthy of being connecting to. And therefore, it's a good reminder to remember, just like in a Shul, we have Sefarim and they're open, but only the Sefer Torah is covered, our eyes are two diamonds, like the Sefer Torahs of our bodies. And therefore we have to make sure that we're only connecting to things that are really appropriate.