The Blind Musician | Rabbi Moshe Weinberger

We have a Kabbalah that the two months of Tammuz and Av correspond to the right eye and the left eye. All of the crying of Tisha B’av is My eyes are crying. And this time of the year of Tammuz and Av, it’s a very, very strong time to fix, to repair our eyes. One of the Avodas of Tikun Ha’einayim is when we say Krias Shema, when we cover our eyes, and we try to connect to שמע ישראל ה’ אלוקינו ה’ אחד. And the Sefarim say that the word Shema is the Rashei Teivos Lift up your eyes. Lift up your eyes to look at things in a different way, lift up your eyes. Because the truth of the matter is, it's not just that we have a right eye and a left eye. It says, Ayin B’ayin means that each one of us was given a set of eyes, but we have something that's called Ayin B’ayin, the eye that's within the eye. We look at things on the outside and we have the ability to look at things from the inside. When we close our eyes by Shema, we cover our eyes, we’re saying: Ribono shel Olam, help me to lift my eyes up to see things in a deeper way, to see in a way of Ayin B’ayin. Not to look at things with the physical eyes, but that I should be able to have that I should have the eyes to see, to see what's important in life through my eyes. I should have the eyes to see You, Ribono shel Olam. There is a מעשה by R’ Pinchas Koritzer זי”ע. There was a certain band, a Klezmer, that played in Koritz by the weddings. And one of the musicians had showed up recently in town, he was an old man, who they called Der Blinder Klezmer, the blind musician. And he played beautiful violin, and he played at the Chasunas. When he was dying, R’ Pinchas Koritzer went to visit him and R’ Pinchas Koritzer revealed afterwards that this Blinder Klezmer was not really blind. He saw very well. But he was a musician and he said that at the Chasunas, the women were here, the men were there, and he didn't want his eyes to wander in the wrong direction. So he took upon himself that he would keep his eyes always closed. And he lived that way for years, I don't know. He lives that way with his eyes closed always. עד כדי כך, that R’ Pinchas Koritzer said that before he died, he said, I want to see the world one more time. And he opened his eyes and he looked at me, and then he was Niftar. The music of this musician, of this violinist, of this virtuoso violinist, where did it come from? We can't be on such a Madrega. We're not the Blinder Klezmer, to close our eyes and to pretend that we're not able to see. We can't live that way. But what the story tells us is that when you work, at least to some degree, sometimes we try to cover our eyes, we can begin to hear music that we never heard before. We can begin to play music that we never played before. We can begin to see things in a way that we never saw them before. Hashem Yisborach should help us, that we should come to that day, of no more עיני עיני יורדה מים, but ועינינו תראינה מלכותך with משיח צדקנו.