The Vayimaen Insurance Policy | Rabbi Zev Smith

As a young boy growing up in Boro Park close to 50 years ago, one of our neighbors, who had just been married for a few years, was going blind. He had an incurable disease in his eyes, and he went to the Ribnitzer Rebbe and the Rebbe just waved it off. Just lein, you'll be okay. A few years ago, I was by a Shabbos convention and he was leining. And I'm told that he leins minimally four times a week. And you might wonder, a person his age, he’s in his mid-seventies, it's not easy to lein four times a week. But if you realize that he’s securing his vision, his ability to see the beautiful sunshine, the sunset, to experience his first grandchild's wedding, it's very easy. Chazal tell us if someone sees something inappropriate and he closes his eyes, זוכה ורואה פני השכינה. And that's based on the pasuk, If he closes his eyes when something that he shouldn't be looking at, the next pasuk is, he will see the Shechinah, in all its glory, in all its splendor. Rav Pam once spoke publicly at the end of his life and he said, turning to his Talmidim, You will see Moshiach. And thinking about what's going on in the world around us, the world around us cries out, Our ancestors cried their eyes out, But we are going to be the ones that are going to be privilege to that sublime sight. But we have to have the eyes, the purity of the eyes, to experience that greatness. Shmiras Einayim is the building blocks for the Geulah. They say a story about this fellow who made a wrong turn Erev Shabbos and he ended up in a small city and he quickly called his Rav: It’s 10 minutes to שקיעה, Rav, what should I do? I'm lost. The Rav says: No, no, no. A Yid is never lost. You were sent. You were sent to make a Kiddush Hashem. Do it. We are not lost in this Galus, whose greatest challenge is Shmiras Einayim. We were sent to this Galus, to be the wise עוצם עיניו, to be zoche to מלך ביופיו תחזינה עיניך. Rav Pam once told us, when he was a young child, this goes back a hundred years ago, there were headlines about a concert pianist who took out $1,000,000 insurance policy on his fingers. Rav Pam said it jokingly, in those days, a million dollars was a lot of money, but $1,000,000 on his fingers? And he explained, My greatest asset are my fingers. That's my future, that's my fortune. And Rav Pam added, What is a Yid’s most precious asset? It's Kedushah. And for that, we have to take out the beloved insurance policy that's called, עוצם עיניו מראות ברע. Another moment, what I call a Vayimaen Moment, is the insurance policy that will give us the privilege מלך ביופיו תחזינה עיניך.