Deeper Vision with Faith - Rabbi Akiva Fox

continuing with our and Munna journey continuing understanding and trying to internalize some of the concepts of emunah what it requires what it entails and what it actually is Reb Hirsch writes a fascinating thought he says that the Torah tells us losa suru acuarela babson Bajarin anthem which means literally do not stray after your eyes and do not stray after your heart which you are accustomed to following and rather you should do the mitzvahs the commandments that a Shem commands us so the simple way of understanding this mitzvah this commandment and the Torah is that the tour is telling a person to control what he looks at to control what his eyes gaze at and not look at inappropriate things not look at things that are considered preachers that are considered improper or inappropriate that is the simple understanding but of Hirsch and his brilliance says a fascinating insight into human understanding and human psychology he says the human eye by itself or what sometimes known as the naked eye is very limited in its perception it is only with knowledge attached or connected with vision that it can see more clearly that it can see more depth for example if you have an animal an animal doesn't see a table as a table see in season as a piece of wood it cannot see it for what it is it is only with the knowledge that there exists something called a table that a person or somebody with intellect can connect to the deeper understanding of what actually his eyes see you can only perceive certain things when your intellect in combination with your vision go together and they give you a much more developed vision a much more developed picture of what you're actually seeing with your eyes sourav Hersh learns that when the Torah tells us not to stray after our eyes what that is really saying is don't limit your vision to what your eyes see use your mind's eye use your intellect together with your vision to understand that there's something else much greater going on let's give a small example wind wind is not something that you can see when there's air moving but when you see what it does and knowing that a second to go this little feather or piece of dust that was over here is now over here so your mind and your i work in tangent and they help you internalize that there's some force called wind and it's blowing something from one place to the other that's the intellect with the I together that gives you a completely different picture another example is seeing love or seeing unity between two people it's not in essence a physical concept you can't necessarily see that two people are in love with each other but knowing that there exists something called love knowing what love is and knowing the way that people love each other would look at each other that will enhance your vision to be able to see much deeper into the world so Reb her she learns that when the Torah says don't stray after your eyes what the tourists telling us is don't look at the world with the limited restricted vision of the naked eye use the mind's eye to see much deeper to conceptualize much more powerful things much more deeper things much greater things this is very important this is extremely critical to understanding the concept of emunah because our limited vision our limited eyesight prohibits or restricts us from being able to see or to know God but with the belief system in place with the concept of emunah the intellectual awareness that there is a shame that there is a God will enhance our vision to be able to see him to be able to connect with him in a much more tangible finite way meaning if a person limits himself to only see with the animalistic eyes his vision is very very limited very restricted and in a certain sense as we said you cannot know God you cannot see God but when you connect it with emunah when you connect it with belief or with as much idea as much knowledge as possible that together with your emunah will give your eyes a new perception a new deeper vision and that will help you see God's hand in the world so this is reversers explanation of what the Torah requires and demands of us don't don't restrict yourself to using only the naked eye you have a much more deeper a much more fundamental perception that if you wish to you can connect to but that depends on you on what you learn on what you understand on what you try to achieve and that will enhance your vision your knowledge and your belief together will help you understand more of what you're doing more of God and see God's hand in the world great sadiq him were given the ability to see much further because they had the ability to connect what they knew and what they believed with what they saw I want to tell you a story there was a great righteous woman that lived in Jerusalem quite a few years ago her name was from arriva she was a very special woman and she used to pray to God she said God with the eyes that you have given us we are too limited to be able to see your kindness and your glory so either give us the eyes to see clearer to see better so that we can actually realize your glory and your kindness or make your kindness and make your glory much more perceptible to even our lowly eyes this was her prayer Hashem her a new Hashem cast aha show us your kindness show us your glorified goodness that you constantly do but we sometimes cannot see it she said either help us with our eyes that we have our limited vision help us see it or enlighten our eyes so that we can see your greatness I believe that these two these two sides of a coin are very crucial for anything in general as far as understanding is concerned realizing that in a certain sense we are limited we are restricted to pray that number one Hashem give us or remove the barriers from our eyes so that we can see further we can see deeper and also to make clearer for us his presence to show us or in a certain sense to come down to us in a much more blatant way so that even with these eyes even with these human finite eyes we will be able to see and to develop a much more clarity into God and to his existence and to his kindness in the world this also is true in general for torah knowledge we find two things we find that the blessing the brothel that we make on Torah is the higher nah hamel okay no sweet in the words of your Torah the pheno in our mouths and we also find gal ni reveal or open my eyes but I beat on the flows motorcycle so I can see the wonders of your Torah on the one hand we say I Shem sweet in the words of your Torah in our mouths Buffy new it's already sweet but we need to be able to taste it the sweetness with our finite with our human mouth that's one thing that we ask ash n give me clarity help me internalize with my finite limited soul help me be able to internalize the sweetness of your Torah but on the other hand we also say Gawain I reveal remove the barriers from in front of my human eyes so I can see indeed the depth of your tour the depth of your wonders when a person begins the emunah journey he has to be aware that both of these concepts are in place number one we are so restricted and number two god is so great but also to pray Hashem give us the ability and the knowledge and the faith to be able to connect you to be able to grow closer to you to be able to see you to realize your presence so that we can enhance our faith and our faithfulness and our closeness to you hashem you