Knocking on Heaven's Door | Rabbi Chaim Meir Roth

The Gemara in Masechta Tamid brings that Alexander Mukdon wanted to go to Africa. He wanted to conquer the entire world. The Gemara says that on his way to Africa, with all its challenges, he met up with a spring of water. While he was drinking from that spring, he smelled something that was otherworldly. And he said, I see that this spring emanates from Gan Eden. He followed the spring until he found the שערים to Gan Eden. He went to the door of Gan Eden and he screamed, Open the doors! I'm Alexander Mukdon. A voice came back and said to him, Sorry, this שער belongs to the Ribono shel Olam and the only ones who can come in are Tzaddikim. So Alexander Mukdon said: Okay, I'm not a Tzaddik, but I'm a Melech, I'm a king. Give me something from Gan Eden. They threw out a round piece of bone. He tried to assess, what is this? He then took this ball and he put it onto a scale. On one side he put gold and silver, and on the other side he put this ball, and this ball was much heavier. And he couldn't fathom, what is this? So they told him, This ball is the ball of a human eye. The only way to get the eye not to weigh more than the gold and silver, was by putting some sand on the eye, and as soon as he put on some sand, the gold and silver pushed down the weight and lifted the eye. What happened here? They were telling Alexander Mukdon, The eye of a person is the strongest thing. If a person does not control his eye, then the eye will be greater than everything else he accomplishes in his life. The reason we didn’t let you into Gan Eden is because the eye is the way into Gan Eden. Who do we call a Tzaddik? Yosef HaTzaddik, the one who controlled his eyes. One who has control over his eyes has an entrance into Gan Eden. One who does not control his eyes, then all his life’s accomplishments are destroyed by the fact that his eyes outweigh them. But if a person does control them, then it uplifts his entire life, and then they open for him the שער of Gan Eden, and he is from those that are מקיים זה השער לה’ צדיקים יבואו בו.