The following story is from a shiur given by Rabbi Zecharia Wallerstein.
There was once a young lady who was blind and she was looking for a shidduch. As a blind girl, it was very tough for her. Eventually, she was set up with a boy who fell madly in love with her, and he married her and he took very good care of her.
One day he was listening to the radio and he heard that there was a doctor in the United States that dealt with blind people – this doctor performed eye transplants. The man researched it and he got himself on a list for an eye transplant for his beautiful Chana. The only problem was that there was a twenty year wait. He saw his wife was very broken.
A month later, the man runs into the house exclaiming, “Chanela! Its a miracle – You’re next! They found a donor for you!” She didn’t ask how he did it or what he did, but she knew she was going to get eyes.
The day before the operation, as the eager couple sat in the hospital room, the man turned to his wife and said. “Chana, I have to tell you something. Not only are you blind, I’m also blind. I never wanted you to know that because I never wanted you to pity me. However, I thought I should tell you now so that you won’t be shocked once you get your sight.” Chana started crying.
The next day Chana received her eye transplant, and it worked. Her eyes slowly began to heal until finally she was able to see more and more and more. For the first time in her life she saw light, colors, and people. Once she saw that her husband was in fact blind, she told herself that after all those years of being taken care of, she would now take care of him.
Or at least that’s how she thought it work. In her eagerness to see the world and experience all of the things she had never been able to do before, she began to develop resentment for her blind husband who could not participate. Eventually the marriage began to dissolve.
She didn’t have the hear tot tell him in person, so she called him one day. “Chaim, it’s just not working. I can’t live with you anymore … I want a divorce.” Chaim was shocked. “I’m sorry Chaim, but I want to see the world and I can’t do that with you.”
Chaim sadly agreed to pack up and leave. “I”ll be out by tonight,” he murmured.
When she came home that night, she saw a letter on her bed that her husband had left her. She carefully opened the letter – “Dear Chana, I really and truly love you and I’ve always loved you. I respect your decision to leave me… but I have one big favor to ask you. Take care of those eyes, because not long ago they were mine.”
There’s a pasuk in Bereshis which says “Va’yitzer Hashem Elokim es ha’adam afar min ha’adama va’yipach apo nishmas chaim – Hashem created man from dirt and He blew into man His soul of life”
Hashem gave us a transplant – He gave us His neshama. But all too often we forget this. What do we do with this holy soul? We tell Hashem “Thank you, the soul is great!
But I have to see the world, I have to be busy with everything else but You.”
Never forget that Hashem gave us our “eyes” – and he expects us to use them wisely, to serve Him lovingly and sincerely, to care for our fellow yidden, and to reach our unique potentials.
Chilling story but I don’t get the lesson… It’s not a big deal to dish out ‘eyes’ if your stash is unlimited
If you don’t get the story , read it again , if you went to a chasidisher yeshiva and cant read your excused.
For a person to give up his sight for another’s sake is a tremendous sacrifice.
Hashem, Who is omnipotent and infinite, sacrificed nothing to create souls.
To suggest that the two are comparable is frankly disgusting.
It’s really not right of you to act like such a bully against God just because you have something he doesn’t — existence.
What basis do you have for your premise
My basis? A fully functioning brain. Got that, anus , err, anon?
How did you figure out your premise. Based on what all the atheists live by reason.
ditto
oh thank God.
Heshy, you dared writing one of those sappy emotional frummy pieces that you see on Aish.com and I thought, oh no, the comments are going to gush about how sweet you are. B”H they are attacking you on technicalities.
Gotta love frum education. We can spot a posul letter on a Sefer Torah from two rows away.
Forget the nimshal, the moshel is so true, women are very much like that, as soon as they think that their husband is the reason they can’t advance and live the life they want they willl dump you
must we tie everything into perry pearl the model?
hahahahahaha
Not only women with husbands, but single and divorced women who claim to everyone how much they are looking for love and marriage but its all a crock..they want money and that’s all . There are very few real women like us that married to have children and bring more eherliche kinder into our world that will transfer our beautiful mesora to our children and grand children and hopefully great grandchildren
I don’t mean to be cheesy but I think that if you think that there are good ppl out there you will find them ( best to look outside of certain NY communities )
This horrible story is supposed to be musar??
to be clear, R Wallerstein is always a little overemotional. u can find an mp3 of him screaming about gay marriage being the cause of the virginia earthquake that was lightly felt in some parts of NY. He also engaged in extreme intellectual dishonesty when noting (to his presumably uninformed audience) that this is the opinion of chazal, and citing one opinion (out of at least six i think from the midrash) that earthquakes are because of gay marriage. will never trust that man again for anything.
Hmm, another overemotional man who is obsessed with gay marriage. Which closet is he hiding in?
Never forget that Hashem gave us our “eyes”
And never forget that Hashem gave us blindness as well – with no one holding a gun to His head.
Oh, that story is so sad that I almost cried. What a ingratitude! Only depressive mood prevents us from seeing the life as a gift. The truth to be told the more alive I feel, the more I feel close to Hashem. Or is it the other way around?
The Bridge to Terabithia was also sad.
More bullshit from the world of the frum
I realize the point was to be uplifting, but doesn’t giving away your eyes violate halacha? (Self-mutilation, for example?)
Plus, why wouldn’t he just give her ONE of his eyes, so they could share them? Maybe she left because he’s a passive-agressive dumbass…
Passiv aggressive dumbass – good one!
Plus, why wouldn’t he just give her ONE of his eyes,…
He was afraid they wouldn’t see eye to eye.
Cearly Rabbi Zecharia Wallerstein expects the people that come to his shiur to leave their brains at the door.
I absolutely love the reaction, I myself loved the story and it was only posted to be uplifting, but this blog is really a big machlokes like the gemara and I shepped mad nachas.
Heshele, are we experiencing some soul searching by our leader? It starts with a warm fuzzy story and the next you thing you know its brisker payos.
its an upcoming wedding thats turning him soft
dont get me wrong – i like the story
i was pleasantly surprised to find it on this blog
what a bs story cmon
no no its real, i know the girl.
OF COURSE ITS BS! AN EYEBALL TRANSPLANT?! REALLY?!?!
no no its real, i know the girl.
OF COURSE ITS BS! AN EYEBALL TRANSPLANT?! REALLY?!?!
It’s supposed to be uplifting, not a non-fiction piece
…based on this k-pop video?
www [dot] youtube [dot] com/watch?v=v-gY_lptqY8
If you want to just see the most relevant part, start at 4:30.
sappy
But I think you are onto something. Whenever I see the crappy kiruv crap on aish / discovery or other such garbage organizations I wonder how is it that these people find the most ugly stories to put in their kiruv messages. After all, the Torah is wonderful but these slimy salespeople can only come up with ugly stories. Where do they get them? Do they read the Watchtower?
I suspect that the majority of kiruv stories put in those garbage books that appeal to BTs are re-purposed literature from other cultures. Good catch on the k-pop.
Oh please, this glurge is all over the web. Do a search on “just take care of my eyes” and you’ll find it.
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There was a blind girl who hated herself just because she was blind. She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her. She said that if she could only see the world, she would marry her boyfriend.
One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her and then she could see everything, including her boyfriend. Her boyfriend asked her, “now that you can see the world, will you marry me?”
The girl was shocked when she saw that her boyfriend was blind too, and refused to marry him. Her boyfriend walked away in tears, and later wrote a letter to her saying:
“Just take care of my eyes dear.”
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Irrelevant whether it is original or not. Either it touches you, or it doesn’t.
Strongly disagree. Kiruv guys are salesmen. Salesmen sell a product. You know they believe in their product and respect their customers when they share the product facts accurately. The product sells itself.
But when Kiruv guys take messages from other faiths, and pretend that they are Torah-thoughts, they reveal that they either don’t really know Torah-thoughts, or they do know, but they are afraid that if people see what Chazal say, they won’t be sold on the product. In other words – these kiruv people have no bitachon!!! they are so afraid that Torah does not sell itself, that they have to pass off some crap they read on a spirituality forum or a love story and pretend that it is Torah.
This shows profound disrespect for their clients, as if BTs will never know they are being duped? This is classic bait-and-switch sales — the mark of a salesman who does not believe in his product, or care about his customer. And these are the people who are our there “selling Judaism” under the guise of Kiruv! That’s not irrelevant. It’s infuriating.
Perfect Telz. I would add that the message this rabbi is teaching is exactly why he’s selling the product even though he thinks it’s not marketable. Guilt and fear. Dressed up, once again, to make it more palatable. But underneath it’s plain old fear of the big bad God watching us.