Balak: Eye Patch

Good morning, good morning Rabotay. For those of you who uh would love to hear, uh we'd love to add some words of Torah. To the beautiful words that we've heard before, Anil Chot Berakot, how important it is to always know what the correct birach is, taqadosh baraku. Especially after we learned last week about how precise prayer actually is in general. So today I wanted to focus on one Pasuk together with you uh to share one beautiful I think it's a beautiful idea.

The Gemara says that Bilaam in his prophecy makes a statement. He says, This is the, Neom means like a speech, the speech of. The speech of the man, what does shetumayin mean? There's a machloke. The Gemara in Abu Dazara says, two explanations on this. One explanation is Shetuma A'in means that he only saw out of one eye. And one explanation explains on the word Shetum Ain that his eye was uh was very good.

Uh that uh in fact if you look in uh the Targum, the explanation of Unculis, he translates this word Shitum Ma'in as Shapir Hazh, which means he saw very well. Now, we've said this many times before, but there's a concept in learning which is called Svarot Hafuchot. What does swarot hafuchot mean? Svarot hafukot means that there's a logic. To say one way.

It's not logical that there should be someone in that machloket that holds exactly the opposite. So in other words, one opinion says this item to do it is Asur. The other opinion holds no no not only is it Muhtar it's a mitzvah not only is it mitzvah mehadrin mehadrin it's the highest form of mitzvah that makes sense How could there be such a chasm between those two opinions? That's what Svarota fukot means. The logic is in two parallel opposite directions.

So it's a very strange thing that you can have a word in the Torah, One opinion is going to translate it as an I, which is closed. unable to see and the other eye is gonna explain it to mean Shapir Khazi that it sees so well that it even expresses that Bilam had nivuah. So how can it be that these two opinions are so far away?

So we'll start with the idea that we've shared before of the Baal Shem Tov. The Bael Shem Tov says as follows. Bil Am, we know, was a terrible person. Bilam was a person of the worst character trait. He was someone who ran after money and after power to levels that are unimaginable. But not only do we find those negative things with BilaM. We find Bilam also the crazy Isur of uh of uh Shochevin B'ema of a person who uh w uh it was i i did bestiality with the with the donkey.

We find about Bilam that he's a person who's willing to sell and to advise Paro on genocide, on wiping out an entire people. So this is not by and large, shall we say, not the best guy. Okay? Yahani, if he's your next door neighbor, they don't use the state farm jingle about him. He's not a good neighbor, this guy. He's not a good person. He's not a a person of any moral compunction and and drive. However, we find that he has Nivoir.

How could it be that God gave somebody like this Nivu'ah? In fact, we know that for the process of Nivu'ah to work, a person needs to be on a very high level. The uh there's a ladder of ten different elements that a person needs to perfect. Before they could reach a Niveau's ten different character traits of and those character traits are not like a mitzvah that you have to do. They are personality traits.

That a person needs to uproot their negative personality traits and refine them. And at that point, it could be... So how in the world could HaKadosh Baruch Hu give? Says the Baal Shem Tov, this man was a man of Ayn Raah. He saw things negatively. He saw things cynically. So what did God do? God gave him one eye that did not open. He gave him one eye that did not work. And in that one eye, where Bil Am was never able to see something negative.

was never able to see something inappropriate, was never able to desire something. In the eye that could not see, God gave him nivoa. Bah Shem Tov says. So therefore the two opinions of the Gemara, Shitu Ma'ayin, the eye that could not see, and Shapir Hazer, the eye that could see greatly, those two ideas operate in tandem.

HaKadosh Baruch Hu needed someone from the Umota Olam to be a Navi for them so that they would not be able to say, if we also had a Moshe Rabbeinu, we would have been good too.

But I was thinking today about the idea of the Baal Shim Tob and there's many different Things that come out, lessons that come out of what the Baha'Shem Tob is telling you. He's not only telling you, you know, that uh this is how you have two opinions that are so far apart. Come together. He's not only answering this question, I believe he's saying something far deeper. Let's take one crack at the Khidush here. The first lesson that sprung to mind is that.

It turns out that for Bilaham, the eye that was unable to see was far superior than the eye that was able to see. And it struck me because there are times when a person experiences something so difficult in their life. That they don't have uh their health. Or they don't have a proper place to be able to stay for the summer. They're squeezing over here. It's not comfortable. They don't have a car. And they don't have a job. Or they don't have a position. Or they don't or they don't or they don't.

We are always hardwired to see that in what we don't have, we look at the things that we don't get from what we don't have. But a lot of times, what we're not seeing is that there are things that you get from what you don't have. The guy who does not have a car. Now he's forced to walk. And how long is he forced to walk? Twenty five minutes to shool each way.

By the end of that six-month stint where he didn't have a heart, he didn't have a car, what did he get? He got a healthy heart. He lost 20 pounds. The guy's gonna live another two years because he actually got on top of his exercise routine. And now he's a healthy person. My friends, what do we get from what we don't have? The person who didn't have a job, who suddenly, for the first time in ten years, he found his connection again with Hashem, he started praying.

He didn't have a job, but he got his faith. The person whose family situation was really rocky. He does not have Shalom Bait. Now, when a person does not have shalom bayit, there's two things that come out of not having shalom bayit. One thing that comes out of it is that you don't have shalom bayit. You know what often happens for a person that doesn't have Shalom back? So long as the relationship is worth saving?

He has a marriage not that was as good as it was before the breakdown. It was better than it ever was since the day he was married. Because he was on autopilot from the moment that he said and she said I do So oftentimes, from the eye that's closed, something could sprout that's much better because it was closed.

And a lot of times I feel like, you know. Sorry, Makhirah. I was just remembering one of the cases. I feel like a lot of the times. Hashem in Shamayim. He does something very beautiful. I don't know if any of you saw there's a f an artist that's famous online. I don't know if he's famous in real life, but I know he's famous online. What does he do? He paints pictures, paintings, in like 60 seconds. They have him in s they do he does it in stadiums. He does it you know all

Anyway, he's painting like this, he's painting like that, he's throwing paint on the object, you're looking at this thing, what what in the world is this item? You know no idea what he's painting. Then he takes the painting and he turns the painting upside down. Have you seen this? And then all of a sudden you look at it. What's that? It's an American flag. It's a statue of liberty. It's uh the people planting the flag on top of uh you know of Iwo Jima.

Beautiful, unbelievable. And I looked at this painting and I was taught by my rabbis. Exactly what we're learning today about Bila, how the eyes of a Toro Jew are not the eyes of anyone else in the world. A Torah Jew's eyes see only Torah. Now, on a simple level it means what are you not seeing? What are you not letting your eyes glance or gaze upon?

What kind of places do you not go to? Because you don't want your eyes to see what a Torah Jew's eyes should not see. But there's a whole different element to it. How you see the world, how you see the news. How you see various things happening unfolding in the world. That's also part of the vision of a Torah Juh. So, my friends, a Torah Jew sees an artist, and what does he see? Not some guy doing this, that other. He sees a lesson in Torah.

You see a kid do something unbelievable, you learn Musar for what you should be pushing your own children to do. You know, there's nothing that makes a father want his kid to be able to read better than seeing someone else's kid at three years old say Shema like a champ. Now many kids are saying Shema only cause Some dad saw somebody else's kid say Shema, came home and says,

What are you lazing around over here, sitting here singing uh baby shark do to do to do to do to do? Gimme the shima! I want the baby shark item out of you. That's a Torah vision and not by the way, it's not a bad thing like it says cannot suffering That may hold ma cannot use your son your your friend's kid saying shima time as you ma So my friends, I want to look at this with Torah eyes. You see this guy and you can see a painter. Or you can see the most beautiful mashal.

There's no painter like God. This guy thinks he's the first guy to do what he's doing. But God says, I beat you by thousands of years. I was painting paintings that the beholders saw them and had no idea what I had painted. But what did it take in order for people to appreciate my art, says Hashem? They were looking at it upside down. And the only thing that has to happen is we flip it. And then what happens? And then the person truly sees what God painted.

Most other painters don't work that way. You see a picture emerging. It's obvious. Guy starts with a circle, puts a nose and a mouth. He know that's a face. Now he makes it more complicated. But from the first minute, you knew it was a face.

Hashem doesn't work like that. You know why? Yeshua Hashem, the salvation of God comes in the blink of an eye. You know what people think that means? Oh, look how fast Hashem. Hashem makes Ishua like this. Boom! That's why it's so fast. The salvation came in the blink of an eye. I'm here to tell you that that's incorrect. How do I know that's incorrect? Because we have a very interesting teaching about Akadosh Baru.

The interesting teaching that proves this is not the case is that Al-Khachamim tells us that Akadosh Baru is always. That God precedes the healing to the healing Before Haman comes out with his genocidal uh decree, what did God do? He put Esther in the palace. Hashem always is Makdim Rifu Alamaka. Now if that's the case, my friends, it can be you shuat shem kharifaim. It can't be. Why? Because the Yeshua happened before the problem.

So it's not in the blink of an eye. My problem was here when I was blinking my eyes. That means the Yeshua was already here before the problem. So it can't be, how do we re- reconcile the idea? The answer is the Refugea was already there. But you didn't see it. What happens when a person is hid if ain, blinks his eyes? For a split second, his eyes are closed.

That is your moment of shaituma aai. That is your moment where your eyes are not looking with your eyes, they're closed. And they're looking only with Hakadosh Barak's vision. My friends, if you're looking for help and you can't find it, you know why you can't find it? Because you're looking in all the wrong places. You went only to a doctor for ifua, but you didn't look up. You went only to someone for a loan and you didn't look up.

There's another opinion in the word head if we're not going to be able to do that Hidif means to blink. But we find that word said by God. When did God say that word? God says to Moshe in the sin of the gig of the of the golden calf, Heref Mimeni. And I will destroy Ashmidev Karaga. I will destroy them in a second. God says to Moshe Rabenu. They just did the sin of the Eger. What does Heref Mimimeni mean? Blink? No. What does hef mean? Heref means leave, move, turn, aside.

Maybe Heref mi Kherefmi Mani should teach us what Heref Ain means. Turn your eyes. Move them from where you're looking to where they should be looking. That so many times really Hakadosh Brahu painted something beautiful, but we can't understand it. He gave us the ishua, but we don't see it. Why? 'Cause we need to take the painting and do this and turn it upside down. I think maybe that's one of the reasons why by modim in Amidah, what do we do? Modim, we bow like this.

why are we bowing by modim? simple understanding bowing by modim we're bowing to God But I think also part of the element of mudim of saying thank you to God means to shift the position of your eyes. Up here, where you're looking every day, you're not seeing what Hashem did. But when the person is down all the way like this, then you start seeing things differently. That is not only about the world to come.

once you see אליונים למעלה ותחתונים למטה אליונים למטה ותחתונים למעלה once you see עולם הפוך ראיתי Don't you think you take that perspective back into this world? Our world is an upside down world. you ever see somebody getting so much cover only because they have flus You see rabbis giving someone a tremendous honor only because the guy has money. And the guy next to the guy sitting there, he doesn't get a Shabbat shalom. Now I understand the place that people are in. I understand the position.

But one of the things I was always so impressed about my father is that everybody in my father's eyes. was valuable. Every person And my father saw every person in the community as a person who potentially could be coming to the Monday and Wednesday night learning program. Who's this guy? Where do you live? Oh, I live on this street. Oh, you're very close to us. Be sure you're gonna be getting a call for coming to prayers, for coming to learn. That, my friends, is .

The upside down world where for many people, Tahtonim, these people really they on the bottom, somehow they got elevated by what? By nothing. by something which is here today and gone tomorrow. There's a fellow who lost all of his money. And I was very close with the family and he was a very wealthy man, very big Bil Bal Sadaka. But a lot of people were also very friendly with him.

People coming all the time. But when he lost everything, because I was actually friends with them, with the family, with the children, with him, with the children, I didn't stop coming. And maybe three, four years later. I know you're thinking because this is how the stories you hear go. Four years later, he made all the money back and he built me a yeshiva and he built my school and he built the show. I don't have a school. I'm just saying.

The end of the story is not the happy ending. End of the story is he's still in exactly the same place. But years later, he said to me, he said, you don't know how much I appreciate that when the money left, you didn't leave. And I thought of the lesson I learned from my father. But that's not how we see people. So my friends, that's Ishwaata Shem Kih. That's Numa Geveshitumai. So when you're looking at something you don't have, sometime God operates and gives us biracha.

My father used to say, Osher Shamul Baalav The at all. You see, sometimes people make a lot of money and it actually winds up to be the worst thing that ever happened to that family. They were all so close. They all spent every Shabbat together. And now money came along. Now they have a reason to fight. Now the whole family broke apart. People now talking to was the money a bit? No. But you know what? It doesn't only end with money. Sometimes a person loses elements of their health.

And it fixes the person. There's something they can't do, so they are humble. And now the person he earned his anava. A person earned his Shalom Bayit. A person earned, this is the fantastic way that HaKadosh Baruch Hu hopes that we see. And in this we see.