A Soulful Journey

The Sages taught is that we have internal urges, some of which are good and some are bad. Where do they come from?    How do we know which is which? "The heart and the eye are the two agents which lead to sin."  - Berachot 3b When in doubt close your eyes, dismiss your surroundings and ask, ' Is this what God would want me to do?'

"An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” (Exodus 21:24). Rashi's comment: "If a person blinds someone, he makes financial   restitution for the value of the eye." Talmud,  Bava Kama 84a

A Midrash: Alexander of Macedon, world conqueror, comes to stand at the gate of the Garden of Eden.  He demands admission and is told that only the tzaddikim, the holy and righteous ones, may enter.  Alexander  becomes  indignant.  No one would dare treat this monarch with such indifference! Alexander becomes angry and insists that the angel guarding the gate should offer him something of great worth.  So the angel gives him a human eyeball. Puzzled, Alexander places the eyeball on a scale, to determine its worth, and then begins to load gold and silver on the other scale.  No matter how much precious metal he adds, the eyeball outweighs all.  Finally, the angel covers the eyeball with a layer of dust.  Unable to see the gold, the eyeball immediately finally resumes its normal weight. The  midrash, in its fashion  teaches that the human eye will never be satisfied with what is has, it always covets more. ...

G.K. Chesterton said the good thing about staying in hot water is that you are always clean. -Louis Jacobs One should always feel as if you were being observed; that no act could be done in total isolation. W i th that mindset, who would do wrong?  Perhaps that is why Pirkay Avot says, "Know what is above you -- an all-seeing eye," and sin will n ot touch you.