What a Wonderful World | Rabbi Yaakov Bender

When I wake up in the morning, I come outside. I love the weather. Even though it's cold, I love it. It blows in my face. I look around and I see the world of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. What a Geshmak! I see the leaves growing. When they’re falling off, I see them turning colors. How beautiful it could be. Our eyes are made to see the beauty of Hashem’s world. We could do so many Mitzvos with our eyes. So many things, to notice different things. Notice Chasadim that are needed. I’m talking from a Yeshiva perspective. A kid coming in with torn clothing. Our eyes show us the kid is wearing torn clothing. Let's go out there and buy him some clothing. A kid comes in and he's hungry. Maybe he's not eating at home. It's all the eyes. The eyes see and we do. The eyes see and we start working. That's what eyes are for. When you see a beautiful Gemara and a beautiful Pshat, wow! You see the beauty of Hashem again. The beauty of His Torah. That’s the idea of the eyes of HaKadosh Baruch Hu giving to us, to see the beauty of His world. To see the beauty of our world. Unfortunately, sometimes the eyes pull us in a different direction, but that's not what the focus should be on. The eyes should pull us in the right direction. I believe, in the הקדמה of the Lev Eliyohu, R’ Elya Lopian’s 3-volume gevaldiger Mussar Sefer, tells the story there. When he was the Mashgiach in Kfar Chasidim, a Bochur came over to him and said, Rebbe, I have a Bris tomorrow morning in Tel Aviv. May I go to the Bris? he says. Tel Aviv? In mitn zumer? Sometimes it's like a public beach. How could you go there? So the Bochur said to R’ Elya Lopian, Rebbe, no issue. I have no problem. I'll go there, I'll be just fine. He says: What? He says: You don’t understand. I'm 85 years old, I have only one eye that I can see with. Du hast tsvey fleyshige aoygn. That's an expression, two fleyshige eyes. And you're 17 years old and you go in Tel Aviv, it's not going to affect you? I, as an 85-year-old man with one eye working, it affects me. That’s what Einayim can do. Says he: Stay in the Yeshiva. Stay where you're surrounded by Torah and what are you going to see? The Kedushah of a Beis Medrash, the Kedushah of Tefillah, the Kedushah of Bochurim who are looking in the right things, the Kedushah of Rebbeim looking in the right things. That's where it's at. Don't put yourself in a סכנה. We have such beautiful, beautiful eyes. That's what we have, HaKadosh Baruch Hu’s eyes, who gives us our wonderful eyes to see good things with. When we see beauty, when we see HaKadosh Baruch Hu’s world, wow! How wonderful it is.