An Eye from Gan Eden | Rabbi Daniel Osher Kleinman

One of the most powerful leaders in world history was Alexander the Great. He rose to power at age 20, and by the age of 30, he had conquered most of Asia, and his rule stretched from Greece all the way to northwestern India. On one of his excursions, he encountered the opening, the פתח of Gan Eden. And he stood there and brazenly declared, I am Alexander the Great. Let me in. This is my domain. They responded to him, Only the righteous enter over here. Alexander the Great then responded, Look, I'm a great king. At least give me something. Surprisingly, his request was granted and out of Gan Eden rolled an eyeball. He thought it was a gem, he thought it was a jewel. He wanted to weigh it, and so, he put it on a scale. To his surprise, the scale went all the way down. So on the other side, he started to pile on gold and silver and the scale didn't budge. He put on an enormous amount of gold and silver on the other side of the scale, and still that gem was weighing down the scale. Perplexed, he summoned the wisest people he knew, the זקני הדרום from Eretz Yisroel. This is no gem, they told him. This is a human eye. The human eye is never satisfied, never satiated, never feels full. The human eye wants to see everything and wants everything. And therefore, all the gold and silver in the world, it will never outweigh the desire that is pent up and built up in this human eye. And to prove their point, they took a little bit of dust, a little bit of dirt, and they covered the cornea of the eye. And all of a sudden, the eye couldn't see anymore. It floated up, and Alexander was able to weigh it properly. This story is quite perplexing. Why, in fact, would they give Alexander the Great a gift from Gan Eden? Why did he deserve it? Another question, What was this eye doing in Gan Eden? This eye was clearly a very lustful, desirous eye. What is the eye, an eye like this doing in Gan Eden? What does it belong there for? It would seem that they were trying to tell Alexander the reason why he could not enter Gan Eden. There was a message here. And the message was, You, Alexander, you cannot control your eye. You never control what you want to see. Wherever you look, you want to conquer. This is why you are in a campaign for world conquest, because nothing is ever enough for you. You always want more. You always desire more. Someone like that doesn't enter Gan Eden. This eye had desires, this eye had lust, this eye wanted to see, this eye had a desire to see as much as it could, but the eye covered itself, it controlled itself, and all that pent up desire in that eye remained in that eye. And that is what gave it its intrinsic value, to the point where it was like a precious jewel that outweighed all the gold and silver in the world. That's why this eye entered Gan Eden. We are all confronted in life with myriad tests. The desire to look, the desire to see. The temptations are never ending. It is in our hands to control, to say no, to tell ourselves, I am going to take this human eye and I'm going to transform it into the most beautiful jewel that will earn me entry into Gan Eden לעתיד לבוא.