Super Sight

The summer months bring with them a unique rhythm: camp, swimming, exciting outings for children—and also challenges, especially regarding tzniut and kedushah. The heat tests our commitment to proper dress, to wearing tzitzit, and most of all, to guarding our eyes.

According to Sefer Yetzirah, attributed to Avraham Avinu, each Jewish month holds a specific spiritual power. The power of Tamuz is sight—physically and spiritually. The days are long, the light is strong, and we can see farther and clearer than at any other time of year.

But with every great strength comes the potential for misuse. Tamuz also brings with it the danger of ketev meriri, a spiritual mazik mentioned in Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 551). It can cause harm, not just physically, but spiritually—because it sees too much, and sees things the wrong way. Many of the tragedies that occurred during this season are a result of this distorted sight.

Sight and Misjudgment in Torah

We know that the sin of the cheit ha’eigel happened on the 17th of Tamuz. The people misjudged the situation—they saw incorrectly. The meraglim, who journeyed through Eretz Yisrael during this month, also failed to see the good. Instead of recognizing Hashem’s gift, they focused on fear.

This is also the time of Parshat Balak, which always falls around Tamuz. It begins with, “And Balak saw…” But what did he see? He misinterpreted everything. He saw that Sichon and Og were destroyed and assumed he was next. In truth, the bnei Yisrael were never going to attack Moav at all. They were commanded not to. Balak panicked and dragged Bilam into a disastrous plan.

In Shoftim (chapter 11), the judge Yiftach explained to the king of Amon that the land was lost to Sichon—not taken from Moav. Moav had refused passage, so the bnei Yisrael went around them and ended up in battle with Sichon. Had Moav allowed safe passage, the confrontation—and later loss—could have been avoided. In trying to avoid proximity to the bnei Yisrael, they caused it to happen.

The irony: what Balak feared, he caused.

And then there was Bilam. The Gemara in Nidah (31a) says that Bilam was blind in one eye. Why? Because he saw Hashem watching over the creation of life, waiting for the moment a tzaddik would be conceived. Bilam found this disgusting. He saw impurity where there was holiness. He couldn’t fathom that kedushah could exist within physical intimacy.

Pirkei Avot (5:19) tells us to be students of Avraham Avinu—with an ayin tovah, a good eye—not like Bilam, who had an ayin ra’ah, an evil eye.

This is the season to correct our vision. To train ourselves to see things the Torah way. To shift from fear and distortion to clarity and emunah.

 

“When we train our eyes to see through the lens of Torah, what once looked like chaos begins to reveal Divine design.”

 

Miracles in Our Days

There’s a powerful story told in Yeshiva Torah Ore. Talmidim once saw that Rav Yosef Stern zt”l (brother of Rav Moshe Aharon Stern, and a rebbi in the yeshivah) had an injured hand. When asked what happened, the gadol answered: “Pebbles hit me.” The rav then shared the following mashal:

A king decrees that anyone who enters his private garden will be punished—crushed by a giant boulder. The king’s beloved son disobeys and enters. The king must uphold the decree, but his advisor says, “Break the boulder into tiny pebbles and throw those.”

This is Hashem’s chesed. We deserve the boulder—but He sends pebbles.

 

“See the world through Torah eyes—and you’ll recognize that every pebble, every pause, and every plan is His.”

 

Consider the attack on Simchat Torah, 5784. The full force of Iran’s proxies—Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iraqi militias—was initially planned for Pesach 5783. Their coordinated assault would have been devastating. But Hashem, in His mercy, delayed it.

When Hamas attacked alone, Israel was unprepared—but it was only Hamas. The other terrorist groups stayed back, due to timing, ego, or disorganization. What could have been catastrophic was, through Hashem’s mercy, prevented from reaching its full destructive potential.

Since then, we’ve watched a sequence of miracles unfold: Israel focused on Hamas, then Hezbollah, Israel was able to first focus on Hamas, then Hezbollah—with pinpoint strikes in a coordinated ‘beep beep—bang!’ offensive, later dubbed “The Beeper Attack,” which neutralized thousands of Hezbollah’s communication devices. Then Syria’s collapse, then the Houthis, and now even Iran has been weakened.

Yes, we’ve suffered. But compared to what was planned, Hashem spared us from disaster.

This is the power of Super Sight—not physical clarity, but spiritual vision. Seeing that Hashem runs the world. That efes zulato—there is no power besides Him.

Let us work on strengthening our emunah and bitachon, and focus during the Aleinu prayer three times daily, where we declare that only Hashem reigns.

May we be zoche to see the ultimate redemption with the coming of Mashiach, speedily in our days.

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R’ Dovi Chaitovsky and his family have the zechut to live in Eretz Yisrael, where he dedicates himself to Torah learning and teaching in Yerushalayim Ir HaKodesh. His divrei Torah often draw from the shiurim of Rav Yisrael Altusky, shlit”a, which can be heard at www.kolhalashon.com.