Part of Who I Am | Rabbi Daniel Glatstein

After everything that Moshe Rabeinu accomplished, he took us out of Egypt, he gave us the manna, he brought down the Torah from Heaven, he guided us in the desert for 40 years, at the end of his life, Hakadosh Baruch Hu tells Moshe Rabeinu, Go up to the mountain and see the land. You're not going to go in. See the land. What exactly would this do for Moshe Rabeinu, to see the land, if he can't go in? The Chesed L’Avraham, the great great grandfather of the חיד”א, explains the power of vision. When you see something, the image comes into your mind through the medium of your eyes and that image becomes seared in your mind. And if it's a good image, that image concretizes and becomes part of you. So yes, with all of the elevation of Moshe, with everything that he achieved and accomplished and with his great holiness, nevertheless, if he has the opportunity to see Eretz Yisroel so that the image of Eretz Yisroel comes into his mind and becomes part of him, that would give him unparalleled elevation. The Zohar Hakadosh teaches that Rabbi Abba would have a picture of his Rebbe, the Rashbi, in front of him, and by looking at it, it brought him great elevation. You see, when Rabbi Abba would see R’ Shimon bar Yochai, that image came into his eye, was seared onto his mind and became part of him. R’ Shimon bar Yochai, his Rebbe, became part of Rabbi Abba. But on the other hand, Hashem tells the spies, You will not see Eretz Yisroel. I will not even allow you to see Eretz Yisroel. Why can't they see it? What will that do for them? Hashem won't give them the satisfaction of bringing the image of Eretz Yisroel into their mind, through their eye. You see, what you see is not just what you look at. The images that you look at come into your mind and become who you are. So the next time the Yetzer Hara says to you, Why don't you just take a look? Nothing will happen. We won't tell anyone. Tell the Yetzer Hara, I would never put that picture up in my living room, I would never invite that person to spend time in my house, so certainly I will not allow that image to come into my mind, through the eye, and become who I am, because that's just not me.