GIVE ME YOUR HEART AND EYES

THE SPECIAL QUALITIES

Part 1

 

Then I Will Know you are Mine

 

A frequent guest in the home of the Shunamis was none other than Elisha Hanavi. She told her husband that this man was holy. How did she deduce that fact about Elisha Hanavi? Simply because he had never looked at her.

Chazal say (Midrash Vayikra 24:6) that in matters of arayos, restraint equals holiness. Just taking care to refrain from looking at the forbidden and from thinking lustful thoughts already earns one the title "kadosh." Rejection of impurity generates holiness. An unfathomable light of holiness envelops the man who conquers his lust - especially when it burns and races inside him.

It is not because Rebbi compiled the Mishnah that we refer to him as Rabbeinu Hakadosh. It's because he never in his life looked at the private parts of his body and, therefore, his soul was kadosh. In addition, he would never unnecessarily lower his hands below his waist; his body, too, was kadosh (Shabbos 118b).

What better way to bolster our resolve than to repeat the wonderful words that Hashem Himself has to say to us, "If you will give Me your heart and your eyes, then I will know that you are Mine," (Yalkut Shimoni, Mishlei ch. 27). Neither look at nor contemplate what is sinful, and automatically you qualify to be lifted beyond the grasp and the smallness of this temporal existence and to have Hashem Himself fill every corner of your life.