What Do I Have Eyes For? | Rabbi Uren Reich

A good friend of mine in Lakewood here, R’ Moshe Dovid Stein shlit”a, told me a remarkable story that his father told him about his early years in Slutsk. R’ Moshe Dovid’s father z”l came to Slutsk as a young boy and when he came, R’ Isser Zalman Meltzer and his Yeshiva had left Slutsk, and together with them R’ Leizer Shach, who was a Talmid of the Yeshiva. And yet he said that the boys in the town would speak reverently about the days that they had amongst them R’ Leizer, the Masmid, that's how the boys talked about him. His התמדה was legendary, and the children remembered different stories about his התמדה, his incredible שקידת התורה. R’ Moshe Dovid’s father once heard from the Shamash in the town a beautiful episode. In those days, they didn't have electrical lights, of course, and everyone needed candles to learn late at night. And the more affluent Bochurim had candles that were smooth and the light burned well, and those that couldn't afford it, had messy wax, so that the flame spluttered up and down. And that's what R’ Leizer Shach had. And one night, when he was learning with this candle, the Shamash couldn't help himself, and he said: R’ Leizer, if you're going to learn like this, hours with such a spluttering light, you're going to ruin your eyesight. And instinctively, R’ Leizer Shach answered, the young Leizer Shach, who was the future Gadol HaDor, R’ Leizer replied, R’ Chatzkl, what are you talking about? If a person doesn't learn, what do I have eyes for? Why would I have eyes just to keep my eyesight if I'm not going to use them for Limud HaTorah? What a tremendous lesson to us in the value of our eyes and our eyesight. Hashem Yisborach gave it to us for ראיות קדושות, for והיו עיניך רואות את מוריך, for Limud HaTorah, and for דברים קדושים וגדולים. Maybe we can add to Rav Shach, on our level, Our eyesight was given to us to use as a tool for refraining and for coming to Kedushah by refraining from looking at things that are impure. Every time we refrain from looking at something that we shouldn’t look at, we are justifying our having eyes. We're showing Hashem Yisborach that we understand what eyesight is for and what it's not for. And חלילה, if we succumb to the Yetzer, why do we have the eyes? Let us justify the gift of מתנת אלוקים, of ראיית עיניים לכל דבר שבקדושה and only for that.