The Letter 'Ayin': Between a Good Eye and an Evil Eye

The number of the letter 'Ayin' is seventy. It is the number that expresses the completeness of the depth of human thought. As the Ramban wrote in his commentary on the Torah, the number seventy includes all viewpoints. Meaning, no matter how many opinions there are, when we distill each one and compare them, we discover that in the end, they amount to seventy and no more. Therefore, there were seventy sages in the Sanhedrin, and all the nations of the world are but branches that emerged from the seventy basic races of the nations of the world, rooted in seventy angelic ministers appointed over them in the heavenly assembly. The beginning of the formation of the Jewish people consisted of seventy members of Jacob's family who went down to Egypt. The number of spiritual days (Shabbat and holidays) in the year is also seventy. And in the Holy Temple, the place of the descent of abundance to all seventy nations, stood seventy pillars. Since the number seventy encompasses all possibilities in any given subject, each of the seventy listed above includes many details.

Since the number seventy encompasses all viewpoints, there are seventy faces to the Torah. Meaning, for each level of the four levels of Torah secrets: Peshat, Remez, Derash, Sod, there are seventy facets, each illuminating the words of the Torah like a polished diamond. Moreover, the word 'Sod' (secret) has a gematria (numerical value) of seventy. Likewise, the 'wine' that, when entering the body, reveals a person’s secrets, as the sages say, "When wine enters, the secret comes out," also has a gematria of seventy.

The letter 'Ayin', whose number is seventy, and represents the deep and sensed, is parallel to the letter 'Zayin', whose number is seven, representing felt movement. However, the letter 'Ayin' is tenfold in its number compared to the letter 'Zayin'. This one is seven, and that one is seventy. The 'Zayin' expresses felt movement, and the 'Ayin' its absorption through the sense of sight.

Additionally, the letter 'Zayin' represents weaponry and struggle. Indeed, contemplation, foresight, and deep gaze, as in the notion of the letter 'Ayin', form a central component and condition for victory in any kind of war, in a higher realm even than the struggle itself. Whether in a spiritual war like the battle against the evil inclination, or in a material war like the struggles for livelihood and existence, even on the battlefield. Hence, the letter of war itself, 'Zayin', has a gematria of seven, while the letter of contemplation, 'Ayin', the secret of success in war, is tenfold compared to it.

The letter 'Ayin' is also constructed in its form from the letter 'Zayin' upon the letter 'Nun'. Together: 'Zan', as the letter 'Zayin' is pronounced by Yemenite Jews. See further for more on the appearance of the letter 'Zayin' in the form of the letter 'Ayin', and another reason for the number seventy as opposed to seven, according to the secret.

Good Eye and Evil Eye

The eye in the body serves merely as a gateway to the soul within the body. While the skin and flesh obscure and block the soul, the eye forms an opening in the body for the environment to enter the inner soul. However, this opening is not just for entry but also for the radiation emerging from the soul within the body outward. This spiritual radiation can influence the physical reality. Hence, when someone who is not virtuous in their traits gazes out of jealousy, malice, or narrowness, the negative radiation emanating from their eye affects the other, even without intentional harm. This is the concept known as the "evil eye". In his book "Otzrot Chaim", Rabbi Chaim Vital wrote that there is a tangible impact from what emerges from the eye's gaze. The Talmud states that if someone finds a beautiful garment and keeps it until its owner is found, they should not display it before their guests—even if their intention is to spread it so it would not be eaten by moths—because the guests might damage the garment with their admiring gaze. However, the way to be saved from the harm of an eye radiating malice is primarily through Torah study. The Torah learner brings about a marvelous spiritual illumination throughout all parts of his soul and body, creating a spiritual protective shield around him, so no negative spiritual forces can harm him or cause damage. Furthermore, our sages taught that in all matters related to negative energetic influences, "He who is careful about it, its harm will be upon him; and he who is not careful, will not suffer its harm." Essentially, one who is anxious and frightened by its harmful influence exposes himself to its impact. However, someone who fears only the Creator of the world, upon whom everything depends, and not any other strength, his trust in Hashem shields him, and he is not harmed by them. The Talmud mentions a special formula to recite for protection from the evil eye. For someone who fears they have been affected by the evil eye, it is important to add the unique merit of reciting the 'ketoret' ritual, about which the Zohar states: "Behold, it is written, 'Take the censer and put fire in it from the altar, and put on incense.' What is the reason? 'For wrath has gone out from God, the plague has begun.' It is because the incense breaks the framework of the negative realm [which was used in the Temple]. There is nothing so beloved to the Holy One, Blessed be He, as the incense. It stands to nullify witchcraft and other evil things from the house. Even the aroma and smoke of the incense that people make with intention, such things are canceled [except that one must be careful of impure incense prepared and made for idolatrous offerings, as found today in some types of incense from India and the Far East], how much more so the incense [specifically prepared for the Temple]. This matter is a covenant before the Holy One, Blessed Be He: that anyone who recites the order of the incense daily, and understands what they are reciting, shall be saved from all the evil forces and witchcraft in the world, from all harmful and dangerous things, and from bad thoughts and actions. He will not be harmed throughout the day. Because the negative force cannot control him. But one needs to concentrate when reciting it to understand its meaning. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said: If people knew how high and precious the incense is before the Holy One, Blessed be He, they would take each word from it, and raise it as a crown upon their head like a golden diadem."

Additionally, it is important to mention the known practice involving lead (and it is one of the few practices that the great rabbis of our generation have agreed upon as not from the ways of the Amorites, but accepted from generation to generation from the holy side). Interestingly, this ancient practice of protection against eye radiation and nullifying it with lead is currently gaining some understanding with the recognition that lead is the only metal resistant to several types of radiation discovered in the modern era. This fact was known to our ancestors thousands of years ago, as explained in the Talmud that to protect the shamir worm (the special worm whose radiation was used to break and hew stones of the Temple and engrave the names of the tribes on the stones of the breastplate), they placed it specifically in a lead vessel. For all other metals or substances would be cracked by its radiation. It should be noted that even a loving person gazing with too much admiration could cause harm. Yet such harm is more rare. However, when someone is happy with their lot and virtuous in their traits, and wishes only good and happiness for everyone, peers at another with a gentle gaze from a good and loving heart, they genuinely participate in their friend’s joy and goodness as if it was their own private joy and goodness. This person is of good heart, and their eye is a good eye.

Moreover, our sages have taught not to gaze at the face of an evildoer, so that their image does not negatively influence us. Conversely, they praised the benefit and advantage of looking at the countenance of a true righteous person.

One who gazes at the tzitzit on their garment should at that moment remember the reason for its attachment to their clothing. As it is written in the Torah: "And it shall be for you as a tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of Hashem and perform them, and not follow your heart and your eyes." Also, the tefillin that are bound on the head, juxtaposed between the eyes.

"Between Your Eyes"

Many wonder about the fact that in the Torah, regarding the placement of the head tefillin, it states: "And they shall be for you as frontlets between your eyes". Yet we place them on the hair of the head close to the forehead, in a spot above the area between the eyes, as received in the oral Torah. And indeed, it states "between your eyes" not "above between your eyes"? Although the Torah refers to this location again in a different context: "You are children of Hashem, your God. Do not gash yourselves or shave the front of your head between your eyes for the dead." Meaning, not to cut oneself with swords to cause injury, nor to shave and make bald the place of the hair opposite between the eyes as a disfigurement for mourning a dead, as practiced by the nations at that time. Hence, for the place of the hair, the Torah calls it "between your eyes". But still, we need to understand why this place is called by a name that seems inaccurate.

However, here too, the study of the secrets of the letters and the revelation of the wonders of creation illuminate the language of the Torah, precisely aligned with the true reality, long before mankind discovered it. As known, the eye is essentially a camera capturing the waves of light and transmitting them to a central point of vision in the brain. Recent studies have shown that from each eye a visual nerve extends that conveys the image to the brain inversely, and the brain turns the image to its rightful position. Initially, the eyes transform the light into nerve stimuli, which reach two identical centers called the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), one on the right, the other on the left. In these, the visual nerves meet, and in them, the principal processing of the visual information occurs. From these centers, information is conveyed to a region known as V1, located in the visual cortex (which sends back different information needed for the visual process), from which the information is replicated to additional areas in the brain, each of which has different reactions and sensitivities.

Thus, vision is truly not in the external eyes, but in the root of the eyes found in the brain, mainly in the lateral geniculate nuclei. Since the language of the Torah aligns with the true meaning of each word based on the secret of the letters, the word "eye" refers to the letter 'Ayin', which is the power of vision in our world. Hence, the explanation of the words "between your eyes" is: between 'your vision centers'.

And behold, the region between the two lateral geniculate nuclei, which create vision in the brain, is precisely where the head tefillin is placed—in the hair near the forehead, opposite between the two eyes! It turns out that the placement of the tefillin is between the two vision centers in the brain—truly "between your eyes"!

And on the arm opposite the heart, they draw illumination from the light of the Infinite and influence it inward to the center of vision and thought in the brain and to the emotional center in the heart. When a person guards their brain so that negative sights do not enter through the windows of the eyes, and sanctifies it with higher illuminations through the tefillin they wear on it, and through studying the words of the Torah and keeping positive thought, they have the potential to elevate themselves in their actions to the perfection of humanity.

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