Weekly Chasidic Story #730 (s5772-09 / 24 Cheshvan 5772)

True Blindness

Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz warned his visitor that all the members of his family who looked at him were also in danger of losing their vision.

Connection: Weekly Torah - Gen. 27:1 with Rashi's explanation

 

True Blindness

Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz was once approached for advice and a blessing by a Jew from Danzig, in Germany; his daughter had suddenly become blind, and no doctor could fathom the cause.

"The reason," said Rabbi Pinchas, "is that her father is also blind, and this is a hereditary disease."

"But my eyes are perfectly healthy," protested the German Jew. "Why, I don't even wear spectacles!"

"The man who is really blind," explained the tzadik, "is the sinner. Thus we find that the prophet Isaiah admonishes 'the blind people that have eyes,' and the Mishna says: 'Samson followed his eyes, therefore the Philistines gouged out his eyes.'"

Rabbi Pinchas went on to warn his visitor that all the members of his family who looked at him were also in danger of losing their vision; in the words of the Talmud: 'If a person gazes upon the face of a wicked man, his eyes grow dim.'

At these words the distraught man wept, and undertook at once to conduct his life according to the Torah. The tzadik then promised him that if he kept fully his new commitment, his daughter would regain her sight. He instructed him to give her honey from the Land of Israel for, in the words of the Talmud, 'Honey and other sweet things add light to one's eyesight.' This the Sages derived from the verse spoken by Yonatan, the son of King Saul: 'See I pray you, how my eyes have brightened, because I tasted a little of this honey.'

The visitor returned to Danzig and made his entire household kosher in all respects. Subsequently, after his daughter became completely cured, she traveled to Koretz to see Rabbi Pinchas, and while there donated money for the writing of two Scrolls of the Torah.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Source: Adapted/Supplemented by Yerachmiel Tilles from the rendition in A Treasury of Chassidic Tales (Artscroll), as translated by the esteemed Uri Kaploun from Sipurei Chasidim by Rabbi S. Y. Zevin.

Connection: Weekly Torah - Gen. 27:1 with Rashi's explanation.

Biographic note:
Rabbi Pinchas (ben R. Avraham Abba Shapiro) of Koretz (1726 - 10 Elul 1791) was considered to be one of the two most pre-eminent followers of Chassidism's founder, the Baal Shem Tov (along with his successor, the Maggid of Mezritch). His teachings appear in various collections (such as Midrash Pinchas), and are cited in the classic Bnei Yissaschar.


~~~~~~~~~~~


Yerachmiel Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed, and chief editor of this website (and of KabbalaOnline.org). He has hundreds of published stories to his credit, and many have been translated into other languages. He tells them live at Ascent nearly every Saturday night.

To receive the Story by e-mail every Wednesday--sign up here!

A 48 page soft-covered booklet containing eleven of his most popular stories may be ordered on our store site.


back to Top   back to this year's Story Index   Stories home page   Stories Archives
Redesign and implementation - By WEB-ACTION