In the Haggadah shel Pesach, we quote a pasuk that says, “God saw our suffering,” and we quote a pasuk in Shemot 2,25:
וַיַּ֥רְא אֱלֹקים אֶת־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וַיֵּ֖דַע אֱלֹהִֽים
God saw Bnei Yisrael, and God knew
And Rashi says, “God placed His heart and did not ignore with His eyes.
The heart and the eyes are the two ways we are aroused. We see things and we feel moved with our emotions and our hearts.
The Bet Yisrael, one of the Gerrer Rebbes, is quoted by Rabbi Schorr in his Hagaddah shel Pesach. He says that the beginning of the Galut started with the clogging of the eyes and the hearts of the Jewish people.
And Rashi describes why in Parashat Vayechi, there is no space between the end of one Parasha and the beginning of another, which is called a Parasha Situma/ a Clogged Parasha. It’s because when Yaakov Avinu died, ”Nistemu Einehem V’Libam/their eyes and hearts became clogged,” because of the exile and difficulties since Yaakov Avinu died. And the beginning of the Geula/redemption started when Moshe Rabbenu went out and saw their suffering… Rashi says he placed his eyes and his heart to feel bad. And Moshe Rabbenu’s eyes and heart aroused God’s ‘eyes and heart.’
What does it mean that the Jewish eyes and hearts were clogged at the beginning of Galut?
Rabbi Schorr explains that every Jew has a natural Eyin Tova/ He looks with a good eye at his friends. But when his eye is clogged, it means that he is not able to look at things in the right way. He doesn’t feel his brother’s pain because he is in so much pain.
When the Galut started, they weren’t able to feel each other’s pain because they were too focused on their own pain.
Bilam, who had an evil eye, was called Stum HaEyin/His eye was clogged.
When it says that the Jewish people’s eyes were clogged, it means that they didn’t cry for their friends; they hearts weren’t torn over their problems.
And a sign of the Geula is when we get our eyes and hearts back again, and we are able to feel the pain of others. That’s the beginning of the redemption. It happens down here, with our feelings. When we feel the pain of others, that arouses God to feel the pain of the Jewish people at large.
Rabbi Schorr continues and says that only 1/5th of the Jewish people got out of Mitzrayim. The other 4/5ths died during the three days of darkness. He quotes from the Siftei Sadik,
“Those who do not feel bad and worried about their friends problems, and weren’t part of the general group, were not redeemed. Because the condition of redemption was to partner up with the pain of others, to pray for them and do what we can to help them. To be alive and awake with feelings of what we can do to help people that are in trouble spiritually and physically.“ That is Ahavat Yisrael, and that feeling is what arouses God’s feelings.
B’ezrat Hashem, we should feel the pain of others. It’s not enough to say that someone is sick in my family. I have to feel bad for others that are sick as well.
I can’t just be stuck in my own problems.I have to realize there are things going on outside of my own world, and open up to the world of others.
Have a wonderful day.