Sparkling Eyes | Rabbi Shimon Finkelman

I grew up in Kensington, Brooklyn, across the street from a very wonderful family, the Barnetsky family. Their second son was Dovid Meir ע”ה. Dovid Meir was a wonderful Bochur and tragically passed away in his thirties, I believe, suddenly. He was learning in Beis Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, at the time. During the Shiva, one night, after everybody had left, his younger brother, Baruch Leib, turned to his father and said, Tatti, there's something I was not allowed to tell you until now, but I think now that Dovid Meir is in Gan Eden, I can tell it to you. Baruch Leib had been learning in Brisk, in Yerushalayim עיר הקודש, and Dovid Meir came to Eretz Yisroel for a visit. Together, the two brothers went to R’ Yosef Salant zt”l, great Tzaddik, author of באר יוסף on Chumash. R’ Salant then was an elderly Tzaddik and they came into his small little apartment in Yerushalayim. He looked at Dovid Meir and he exclaimed, And then he added that to this Dovid Meir we could apply the Rashi in Chumash by Avraham Avinu in Lech Lecha, where he said to his wife, Rashi speaks about the Shmiras Einayim of Avraham Avinu. When they left the apartment, Dovid Meir turned to his brother and said, Please don't ever tell anyone what you just heard about me. He did not tell until after Dovid Meir had left this world. Such sparkling eyes. The Chofetz Chaim teitshes the pasuk in Eicha, My eyes cause grief to my Neshama, from all the senses of the body. Because as the Vilna Gaon says, There's nothing that affects the Neshama like the power of sight. Much more, for example, than the power of hearing. We see something, it sears into our mind, into our Neshama. It's hard sometimes to get rid of it. It can be done, but it's not always easy. On the flip side, yes, the eyes could cause grief to the Neshama, but it could cause so much good, bring so much lichtikeit, so much Emunah, so much Simchas HaChaim to the Neshama, if we don't look where we shouldn’t look and only look where it's proper to look. We all have it within us to have those sparkling eyes, like Dovid Meir Barnetsky. If we had the eyes, we would be able to look at each other and see how our Neshamas are lifted up each time we’re successful in our Nisayon of Shmiras Einayim. May we be zoche to be successful and that way grow closer and closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and have truly sparkling eyes.