Brachos 20
Yosef was incredibly handsome. As he walked down the street each day, all
the young ladies in Egypt would talk about him and compete to catch a glimpse
of his beauty. But one woman knew that
he would be her prize alone. At the
time, Yosef was working for Potiphar, and his wife had become obsessed with
him. Each day, she would make advances,
making it really difficult for Yosef to concentrate on his job, let alone his
spirituality.
One day, he couldn’t take the pressure anymore and decided
that maybe he would give in to her desires.
Suddenly, he envisioned his father gazing down upon him and showing him
the future breastplate of the High Priest.
The adornment would have twelve stones, one for each tribe that would
descend from the twelve sons of Yaakov. But,
alas, there was one stone missing! ‘If
you go down this path, you will remove your descendants from the family of
Israel!’ was the message he understood, loud and clear.
Rabbi Yossi bar Chanina expounded the verse, “May they
(Yosef’s descendants) multiply like fish throughout the land.” Just like fish
in the sea are covered by water and ayin hora (the evil eye) has no power over
them, similarly over the offspring of Yosef, ayin hora has no power. Putting it differently, over the eye that did
not indulge in something that did not belong to it, ayin hora has no power.
What is the meaning of ayin hora? Heaven has determined what we are entitled to
receive in this material, physical world.
As human beings, however, many of us are not satisfied with what Hashem
has provided us. And so we look around
and begin to desire things that don’t belong to us. The more we gaze at these distractions, the
more we desire them. And gradually, our
eyes become so fixated on these things that we become obsessed.
That’s what happened to Potiphar’s wife. First, it was just a little peek at Yosef,
when she thought he wasn’t watching. But
the peek became a gaze, which became a fixation, and then an obsession. Day after day, he resisted the urge to return
her glances, but it was all too much. It
reached a point where Yosef thought that he could no longer control the
temptations. But by focusing on the
future, he was able to overcome his emotions.
He saved himself from the clutches of the ayin hora, to which he had
almost become victim. And in doing so, he
bequeathed to his descendants a special power over the force of ayin hora
for evermore.
The same ayin hora force that tempts a person to look
at and become fixated upon another human being that does not belong to him exists
regarding other people’s property and lifestyles. It starts with a simple glance in another
person’s direction, but before one knows it, they’re obsessed with what the
other person has and they don’t. Ayin
hora, the evil eye, is the power of jealousy, a force that can be so
destructive. People look at what you
have and they become so envious that they will act irrationally to bring you
down.
The Gemara teaches the secret to avoiding others’
jealousy. God conducts His disciplinary
activity in a system of ‘measure-for-measure,’ meaning that reward and punishment
correlate with our actions. If you allow
your ayin hora to stray – and focus on things or people that don’t
belong to you – he allows others to focus their ayin hora on you,
becoming jealous of you, often to the point of obsession. But if you’re careful not to create any ayin
hora, controlling your eyes from wandering and indulging in other people or
property – not even just a peek, let alone to the point of lust – then Hashem
will guard you and your property from the ayin hora of others.
In the twenty-first century, it’s not easy to resist the
temptation to allow your eyes to wander.
Inappropriate imagery abounds. And
social media gives the impression that some people are enjoying such amazing
lifestyles and material prosperity. But
a glance quickly degenerates into a gaze, a fixation, and ultimately, an
obsession. The more you control the urge
to be overpowered by the ayin hora to indulge in things or people that
are not your own, the more Heaven will control the urges of others’ ayin
hora. Their jealousy of your possessions,
accomplishments, lifestyle, and family, will have no effect whatsoever.
Many of us have heard our grandparents employ the term
‘keinehora,’ as shorthand for ‘no evil eye.’
May you resist the lures of the enticing world around us, and may
keinehora come your way!
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