Today I want to share with you an incredible Sforno. The Sforno says as follows: When there are two roads in front of you, those are called Einayim. And that fork in the road where you see two roads in front of you is called the opening of the eyes.
I have to share with you something unbelievable that the Sforno is teaching us here. The Sforno is explaining to us: You know what a fork in the road is, when you have two directions stretching out in front of you? You know what that's called in the parlance, in the language of the Torah? That's called Petach Einayim, the opening of the eyes.
Effectively, you know what we're talking about, then? When we talk about this work of Shemirat Einayim, of guarding eyes, we're talking about guarding from options. If Petach Einayim, or Einayim, means a fork in the road—I could go this way, I could go that way—then Shemirat Einayim means protecting ourselves from options.
You know what one of the greatest challenges of what we see is? When we see something that we desire, our brains say to us, “Oh, you could have that. You like that? You could have that.” And that's true about anything: something that a person is watching or looking at that's inappropriate, even someone else's car or someone else's house. You know what happens when you've seen that? Your brain says, “Ooh, we could have that.” So it's true: I have A, but I could have B.
So many marriages suffer from Shemirat Einayim because the person saw another option. The person saw, in their business, someone else who has more money. And in their brain, they're thinking, “I don't know. I could have more money. I should have more money. Why don't I have more money?” And suddenly, they're in a tailspin. Their life, which was one path, suddenly has two. And they're asking themselves day and night, “How come I'm not on the other path?”
The greatest beneficiary of Shemirat Einayim is your own happiness. If you look at what you have, then you have an opportunity of being sameach b'chelko (happy with his portion). That brings you incredible wealth in the language of the Mishnah. The minute you've seen something else, your brain is wondering why you don't have that. Do yourself a favor. Careful where you look.