משקפיים, עדשות מגע ואובדן ראייה

00:01 This is Igris, and today we are going to do a deep dive into vision, glasses, contact lenses, vision loss, Rachmana Litzlan, and a very consistent segula that the Rebbe associates with improved vision in those who are suffering from eyesight problems. May they have a Refuah Shlema, a speedy and complete recovery. This topic actually began with the hope of doing a shiur on contact lenses. It is well known that the Rebbe spoke out against using contacts, and I had hoped that we'd be able to collect some primary sources on the subject. Unfortunately, there just aren't many of those in print right now. I suspect that when the giant cache of English letters is released and when more ma'amas from the eighties and nineties are released, we'll see a few of these in writing. But I was unable to find any clear written source where the Rebbe says no to contacts. It's almost entirely something the Rebbe's secretaries conveyed to the general public and have then put into writing. So certainly reliable based on reports of reliable people, but no material for a shiur, so we're out of luck. Uh, instead, I decided that we would do an entire sugiah of glasses and vision, and along the way, we'll clarify what little we do know for sure about the Rebbe's position on contact lenses. As a reminder, in all medical matters, the Rebbe has instructed repeatedly that we consult with a refi adid, a doctor who is a friend, and give the final say in what we

01:10 do, not to reports from the secretaries, not even to what we find in Igris, and not even what you hear on this wonderful shiur, but to a rav and or mashpia who knows you. Without further ado, let's start with a sort of fun exercise. I went looking. Ha, see? Looking. Get it? Ha. To see how many of our Rebbeim I could prove wore glasses. I have found four of them. I have proof that four of our Rebbeim wore glasses. It's possible more did, but I can prove that four of them did. Four out of seven is not bad. I can demonstrate that the Tzemach Tzedek, that's the third Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Rebbe Rashab, the fifth, the Friediker Rebbe, the sixth, and our Rebbe, the seventh, all wore glasses. And I even have photo evidence, which I will show you in just a moment. So first of all, I can prove that the Tzemach Tzedek wore glasses, although of course, he did not wear them on his eyes. He wore them on his forehead. This is the Reshimas HaYom. This is, uh, this is the Rebbe's Reshimas. And the Rebbe writes in his notebook, "HaTzemach Tzedek l'sei yomam nasa mishkafayim," that the Tzemach Tzedek near the end of his life started wearing glasses. "Aval al mitzche," he wore them on his forehead. "Mithnei ayin hara," in order to avoid "ayin hara," in order to avoid the evil eye. I as-I assume the idea is that when you get to be a certain age, people wonder how

02:13 it's possible you're not wearing glasses, and so he wore it in order to draw attention away from the fact that he still had perfect eyesight even as an old man. But it could be something even deeper than that. I don't know. What I do know is that the Tzemach Tzedek had glasses that he didn't wear on his face. And by the way, there is a picture of that. In the he-- uh, I never noticed this before, and this is a grainy picture, so I doubt you can see it very well. Maybe you should put on your glasses. There will be multiple jokes like this. I apologize. The official painting of the Tzemach Tzedek does include him holding glasses, if you look very closely. The official painting of the Tzemach Tzedek, I have it on your screen right now. I hope you can see. Uh, if you look by his book and you look by his, uh, hands, by his book, you can see he's holding these sort of wire ri-- wire-rimmed glasses by the book. So we do actually have a, uh, the one authoritative painting we have of the Tzemach Tzedek is a painting that has him holding a book and holding glasses. So we have proof, photographic proof, and also Reshimas proof. This is just an interesting sugiah in general that I don't plan on us ever getting into, in particular, at least not in the Igris year. But on Rosh Hashanah, there seems to be a custom among some and among some

03:09 great tzadikim. Uh, it's out there, the custom on Rosh Hashanah not to carry things on Rosh Hashanah, even though Rosh Hashanah normally, or this year it falls on Shabbos, so obviously, you can't carry anything. But normally, Rosh Hashanah is a Yom Tov. You'd be able to carry the things that you need for Yom Tov. There is a custom out there not to carry things on Rosh Hashanah. It doesn't seem that we are careful about this. We have in the Etz Menachem Chabad that the Friediker Rebbe saw people carrying on Rosh Hashanah, uh, when it fell on a weekday, sidurim, and they would carry books to Tashlich, and he didn't say anything about it, so it seems it's not a problem. This is apparently something that the Rebbe said at his table one time. So it seems this is not an issue. You can carry your book to Tashlich. Don't worry. However, those of you who know a little bit about the bi-biography of the Rebbe Rashab know that there was not a halacha that you could be stringent in, that the Rebbe Rashab was not specifically stringent in. The Rebbe Rashab is a real Shulchan Aruch individual, in addition to all of his other incredible ma'alas, and it seems that he was very careful personally not to carry on Rosh Hashanah, even when it fell during a weekday. And we have here in the footnote to the Etz Menachem Chabad that Admor Rashab, the Rebbe Rashab, lo hayah metalta baRosh Hashanah b'reshus harabim. He would

04:08 not carry on Rosh Hashanah in the public domain. Now, why am I telling you this? Because k'shehalach l'Tashlich, when he would go to Tashlich, haya meseh es hasidur v'es hamishkafayim mishu mehabachurim. He would hand over his sidur and his glasses. He would hand over his glasses to one of the students and say, uh, one of the young men, and say, "Carry these to Tashlich for me," which proves that the Rebbe Rashab indeed wore glasses. We actually have a testimony from, uh, one of the students in Temche Timim describing the time that the Rebbe Rashab asked him to carry his glasses to Tashlich for him. And when he got there, other students tried to say, "Hey, pass up the glasses. We can give them to the Rebbe Rashab." And he pushed back and said, "No, I want to deliver them personally." So it's well known that the Rebbe Rashab had glasses. We also have testimonies from people who were around near the stalks of the Rebbe Rashab before his passing that, uh, people would help him put on his glasses when he, when he needed to daven. So when it's time for davening, they would put the glasses on his eyes. So we know for sure that the Rebbe Rashab also had glasses. We also know that the Friediker Rebbe had glasses, and that I don't need a written report for. You can see it. This is one of my favorite, uh, Friediker Rebbe pictures. I don't remember, did I say Friediker Rebbe? I meant the

05:06 Friediker Rebbe. One of my favorite pictures of him, he's smiling. I'll have these in the supplemental thing in the folder on the Dropbox for all those of you listening at home who would like to see the pictures. Uh, it's a beautiful picture of him smiling, and you can see very clearly that there are glasses on his face. I assume many of you remember seeing the Rebbe in glasses, but just in case you don't, our Rebbe also wears glasses sometimes. Uh, here's a picture of the Rebbe wearing glasses. So I can find proof that four of our Rebbeim wore glasses. Now, regarding contact lenses, they wore glasses. They did not wear contact lenses. And the rumor on the street is that they did not like contact lenses very much. The only two places that I was able to find in writing, actual writing from our Rebbeim, any reference to contact lenses don't tell us much, besides the fact that people writing to them knew that the-- people writing to our Rebbe knew that our Rebbe's not a fan of contact lenses. Here's what I mean. I have here a, uh, a minor. The original text is on the screen, but I also have it printed so that we can read it properly. Somebody writes to the Rebbe saying that, uh, a woman writes to the Rebbe saying, "For my wedding, I stopped wearing contact lenses because I heard that the Rebbe doesn't agree to people wearing contact lenses." So people are very much aware of this.

06:08 Uh, do I have the year here for this? I wish I did. Do I have the year? I don't seem to have the year. I apologize. Anyway, uh, however, she says that, uh, although she has been careful to not wear contact lenses and to wear glasses, she doesn't like to wear them on Shabbos, and she doesn't like to wear them on special occasions. So she writes to the Rebbe asking, "Would it be okay if on Shabbos and on special occasions I wear contact lenses?" And the Rebbe writes back, "You should ask a Rav whether it is mutar, whether it's permissible to wear contact lenses on Shabbos in this fashion, especially since you're not wearing them normally. To use contact lenses on Shabbos, you have to ask him whether you can do that, im ein sham shemech b'chol. That is, if a person wears contact lenses all the time, it's an easier answer. Whether a person can choose to wear contact lenses specifically on Shabbos is a halachic question." And the Rebbe says, "You should ask a Rav what to do, v'tasa k'heratsah, and you should do according to his herah. Do what he says." Now, could you read this as the Rebbe saying that somebody who doesn't want to wear contact lenses all the time, just sometimes, is permitted to wear them on Shabbos only assuming a Rav says okay? You could, or you could say that this is just one answer to one person, and the Rebbe's kind of ignoring that first part of

07:09 the question where they're asking about contact lenses in general, because the woman writing isn't saying, "Should I wear them?" She's saying, "I heard you don't like them. Can I do it on Shabbos?" Hard to know if this really tells us anything, but it certainly tells us people were aware of the Rebbe's concern about it. We have another ma'aminah along similar lines with a similarly opaque answer. This is from the beginning of Menachem Av of the year Taf Shin Mem Zayin. A bachur writes to the Rebbe saying that he has an eye condition, and this eye condition is, uh, he has an eye condition. I'm getting notes. All right. I'm getting notes about this year. Ask me later. Uh, the, uh, the-- from people in this year right now. Uh, ma'aminah's Keres of Taf Shin Mem Zayin. Uh, this is the beginning of Menachem Av, and the Rebbe-- Somebody writes to the Rebbe. A bachur writes to the Rebbe saying that, uh, he's heard the Rebbe's not a fan of contact lenses, but he has a serious eye condition. And the serious eye condition, the doctor tells him that because of this serious eye condition, he's either going to need surgery or he's going to need to wear hard contact lenses. And since the surgery is obviously riskier than the contact lenses, he wants to know what the Rebbe has to say about that. And the Rebbe writes kamo fosom, as is very well known, as has been publicized very widely at this point. Ka'atas l'rofe

08:12 yadid, you should be asking a doctor who is a friend, uh, not me. Ask a rofe yadid, and of course, I will mention it by the ear of the Friediker Rebbe. So when it comes to this particular question, the Rebbe throws it to the rofe yadid, to the doctor as a friend. When it comes to the other question, the Rebbe throws it to a Rav. We really don't have anything, as far as I could find, in writing from the Rebbe saying, "Don't wear contact lenses." At the same time, we do have really good testimony from the secretariat in general that the Rebbe's not a fan of contact lenses. This, uh, that I have on your screen right now, this is the best place I could find it all, to tell you the truth, all in one place. This is in Maarap Bo Ma'aseh Hashem, which is the Hebrew edition of what ultimately became Mind Over Matter, kind of the authoritative guide from, uh, from, uh, from, I guess, the science Torah folks in the Rebbe's orbit about the Rebbe's position on science and Torah. And in their section on contact lenses, they write, "Rebbe Leibel Groner, Rabbi Leibel Groner, uh, he said he gave over that the Rebbe was not a fan. He told people not to wear contact lenses." And similarly, many, uh, women and daughters of Chabad, that is girls, wrote to the Rebbe asking about contact lenses, and the Rebbe would write things back like, "Ein kedai, that's not appropriate or not

09:15 necessary, not for now. Uh, l'doshash bem bimafshar, don't use them if at all possible. Da'as ki kamo fosom l'doshash bem, my n-- my, my opinion about this is very well known that you shouldn't be using them." Now, this book, Maarap Bo Ma'aseh, Ma'aseh Hashem, quotes those things in quotes, but I was unable to find them anywhere. So either they're not in print, or they're not in my sources. They're not in Eitz HaChochmah. I was unable to find these phrases, but they claim that's what he said, and certainly it does seem that that's, uh, that's been backed up by the secretaries very well. L'dvaro, it seems based on what, based on what Rav Groner told us, it seems the Rebbe did not distinguish between hard contact lenses and soft contact lenses. I've heard many times that people think maybe the Rebbe did. Rabbi Groner has specified that there's no way the Rebbe did. And as a matter of fact, Rabbi Groner has a video where he testifies that he one time saw a letter from the Rebbe where somebody wrote to him, "Is there a difference between hard and soft lenses?" And the Rebbe said there is no difference. However, once again, we don't have that letter. The, uh, authors of this science Torah book put in brackets that, by the way, the infection rate, which is one of the major concerns, safety concerns when it comes to contact lenses, doesn't seem to be reduced significantly by having soft versus hard lenses. And that was true

10:19 then, and that's still true now. We also haven't really seen a drop, as far as I know, I looked into this a little bit. We haven't really seen a drop in infection rates, even from the newer materials that are used for softer contact lenses. So if the concern is infection, there's no reason to say that that concern has gone away. It was always a small concern. I don't think it's gotten bigger. I don't think it's gotten smaller. Hard to say that modern technology would have changed this particular ruling from the Rebbe. But the truth is, if you really wanna know about what the Rebbe thinks about contact lenses, you should look at what we absolutely have in writing, which is ask your Rav and ask your rofe yadid. So it's a call for a mashpia, a call for a Rav, a call for a rofe yadid. We do have below the line here some interesting information. Below the line-- about contacts. Below the line, we have that if the Rebbe did agree to contact lenses, this was a, for an individual, this was an individual answer that was outside of the Rebbe's normal rules. So if you do hear that somebody got a bracha for the Rebbe for contacts, that would be an exception to the rule, not the rule. I have to trust them on this because, again, I don't have the sources, and I really wish I did. There are two stories that are brought below the line. Just thought, you know, we,

11:12 we like stories here. Sometimes we say them after the share. Why not say a couple of stories in the middle of the share? One story here is that, uh, one of the maskirim, one of the secretaries of the Rebbe says over that, uh, one time the Rebbe was in a conversation with an eye doctor, an expert eye doctor, and the oct-- eye doctor was trying to convince the Rebbe that a certain woman in a very serious situation, that her vision could really go, and he can't guarantee that her vision will be able to stay if she doesn't start wearing contact lenses. And the Rebbe said back to him, "You will not succeed in getting a haskamah from me. I'm not gonna agree to this because, in my opinion, you should not be-- people should not be using these contact lenses." And, uh, this woman, when she heard that that was the Rebbe's answer, she obviously said, "I don't want contact lenses." And thank God, her vision improved. We have another story that at one time, the Rebbe, uh, showed to that same maskir a little bit later. The Rebbe showed that same secretary a passage from a newspaper, where the newspaper had shown that there had been some complications from contact lenses. And after the secretary read that section in the newspaper, the Rebbe turned to him and said, "From here you can see that I'm right about rejecting this idea of contacts." So we have some stories. We have reports from the secretaries. We

12:11 have what appears to be common knowledge in Lubavitch. I wish I had some more primary sources to show you, but that's what I know about contact lenses. So what we've done so far is that we have demonstrated that four out of our seven Rebbeim, without a doubt, had glasses. I g- guess I can't say wore, that some Hasidic wore them on his forehead. Does that count? I don't know. Uh, we have the Rebbe responding to contact lenses by essentially saying everything we have in writing is ask your doctor, ask your Rav, but that's not specifically should I wear them. We also have it clearly that, uh, in the '80s and the '90s it was generally known that the Rebbe is not a fan of contact lenses. And we have a couple stories and testimony from the Rebbe secretaries who are very reliable, holy people, that the Rebbe is not a fan of contact lenses. That's as much as I know. And in order to make sure that the shiur is complete, given that contact lenses just doesn't have that much material, and showing you pictures of our Rebbeim in glasses does not count as giving a shiur, we're going to spend the rest of our time together looking at Rebbe letters regarding people who are suffering from vision loss, and the Rebbe's advice on how to improve someone's vision if they have vision loss, Rachmanu Liitzlan Lo Yaaleinu. Before we look at those Rebbe letters, I have in your supplementary sheet, there is a Gemara

13:09 about this. There's a few Gemaras about how to have better eyesight. I wanna show you this one because the Rebbe quotes it a couple times in his letters. This is the Masahes Brachos on Mem Gimel on the Beis and the Rebbe, excuse me, and the Gemara says, this is the Gemara. Brachos, uh, Mem Gimel, that's forty-three B, and the Gemara says, "Yeshevna af lev siev sia gassa devar mar psia gassa netellus echad mechamish neis meimar einam shalom." A person should not take giant steps. They shouldn't take these big strides. They should walk in dainty little steps. Everybody should take dainty little steps as they are walking. And why should they not take these big wide strides? Because the master taught that taking a wide stride, every time you take a wide stride while walking, this takes one five-hundredth of the light from the eyes of a person, meaning that it makes your vision suffer. Matshkantei. How can a person fix that? Let's say they've been doing some leaping or some running or some jumping. How do they fix their lost vision? And the Gemara answers, "Labra," you can bring back your lost vision, "b'kidusha d'vei shimshay," by making kiddush on Friday night. And Rashi says there that means drinking the kiddush wine on Friday night. So somebody who is suffering vision loss, the Segula in the Gemara for this is drinking kiddush wine. The Rebbe indeed in at least one of his letters, and the truth is I found three or four like this, I

14:11 just didn't wanna give you-- We're only doing one representative example of each major thing. So in s-- uh, three or four different letters, the Rebbe specifically suggests for someone who's having eye trouble that they should be more careful with kiddush wine and also with havdalah wine. Uh, I don't know why exactly. My guess that he's saying kiddush and havdalah wine is because the Gemara just says the wine at night, and it's unclear if that's Friday night or Saturday night. Rashi says it's Friday night, but who says, right? Maybe there are other commentaries I didn't find. In any event, uh, this letter is labeled Aleph Taf Taf Kuf Mem Zayin. This isn't Igrash here. The rest of our shiur is all letters, I promise. B'li neder, but I do promise. Uh, b'li neder. 20 Kislev Taf Shin Yod Gimel, and the Rebbe writes, "Shalom u-bracha. I'm responding to your letter from Rishkendish Kislev. You write there that the doctor has told you that you're going to need eye surgery." And the Rebbe writes, "Bet ach lamaseh zeh ha'yireh. Certainly it would be, uh, overkill, it'd be excessive for me to point out, li'za'ir, and to tell you that you should be incredibly careful b'kiddush v'havdalah." When it comes to kiddush and havdalah, you should certainly be careful. So the Rebbe is telling a frum person, "Be careful with kiddush and havdalah." So sometimes that's an unnecessary thing to say, but the Rebbe is saying be extra careful with it. Why? "Shezeh negeleh merem shalom," because this

15:10 is relevant to the vision of a person, as we just saw in our Gemara earlier. "Vecheim v'tesef, vecheim v'tesef es eimet b'yadam shav kavod haTorah v'limdeah." Also, you should try extra hard to show honor to the Torah and honor to those who learn the Torah, as it says in the verse, "Ki ner mitzvah v'Torah or," because a flame, a, a flame is a mitzvah. A mitzvah is like a flame, and the Torah is like a light, and we're trying to bring the light back into your eyes. So the Rebbe has three pieces of advice to this person who is suffering vision loss or having vision trouble or might need an eye surgery. Number one, be careful with kiddush and havdalah. Number two, respect people who study Torah. And, uh, number three, respect the Torah itself. "V'daas sh'Hashem Yitbarach midah k'neged midah." Since Hashem acts measure for measure, "l'chazek et esemöreinu," if you do things to strengthen the things that, that Hashem calls the light of the eye, like Torah, like its scholars, like kiddush, like havdalah, then God, in measure for measure, will bring back the light of your eyes. "V'kamish uram v'teres hanigleh v'teres hachassidus." Also, please set up study sessions in the revealed aspects of the Torah and in the hidden aspects of the Torah. "Chassidus, chassidus, chassid, miteichah archavah." Uh, the chassidus, chassid, right? The hidden chassidus of the Torah. "Miteichah archavah," you should be-- The Rebbe's giving him a berachah, giving him a blessing that he should do so with archavah

16:15 ubriyas nechenah, with, uh, a whole bunch of stuff. Uh, archavah's, uh, expansiveness, but it usually means in, uh, in money, that he should have a whole lot of money and comfort and also health, uh, proper health. Going to our next letter. This is labeled Aleph Shin Samech, and this is from Chavkim Ottevis of Taf Shin Yod Beis. And we have a slightly different Segula, and this one's going to guide us through the end of the shiur. This is the most common Segula that I found for vision. The Rebbe says this again and again in some of the later letters that we're going to see. Uh, every time I say see, I think I should chuckle a little bit. In these later letters that we're going to see, with God's help, of course, that we're going to see, the Rebbe will explain exactly why this is such a powerful Segula, but we'll look at it inside. "Kimalti apan li'er azman ksivas es ha'kesav et flei necheres savri ya'akumei, kumei shaisa." Uh, this person wrote to the Rebbe saying that their vision is not as good as it used to be. They've gone to a doctor who's an expert, and, uh, the doctor right now does not have any advice for them on how to make it better. And so the Rebbe-- So they've turned to the Rebbe, "Do you have any advice? The doctor's got nothing for me." And the Rebbe says, "Nachen hu. Shai yishiknes l'rei fei ech acher mumcha." Number one, I want you

17:14 to go to another doctor. If a doctor tells you they don't have anything for you, you don't go to the Rebbe next. You go to another doctor next. "Shafi et ha'aretz l'chnes nai gam b'derech hateva." Because according to the Torah, must-- one must always act according to the natural order, and the natural order is that a person goes to a doctor when they're sick, and if the doctor doesn't know what to do, they go to a different doctor. "V'chutz mizeh, atzati sh'tatteh bishirat Torah d'varim rabin." In addition to that, it is my advice that you get involved in participating in Torah study that is done in public. For example, the Igrash shiur in the mornings. That would be in the, in the afternoons. At twelve thirty, is that when we do the Igrash shiur? Is that the afternoon? Twelve thirty is the afternoon. So the afternoon Igrash shiur, that's a great way to participate in Torah study in public. "V'gam yirah limud limed, uh, limed l'chav pakash shuras acharis m'sefat ani v'sefat ezer." Also, a person should be very-- Also, you should be very careful To learn or to at least say a few lines from the Sefer Tanya and the Sefer HaZohar. Tanya being the primary work of Hasidism, and the Zohar being the primary work of Kabbalah. So the Rebbe is pushing the side of the Torah here specifically. and the Rebbe gives them a bracha, that I hope to hear good news about your vision. This idea that when it comes to

18:18 the spiritual side of things, Torah, and not just Torah, but specifically the hidden part of the Torah, is the Rebbe's main segulah for better vision, is something that I found in like ten or fifteen letters. I'm showing you just my favorites here. This letter is from-- This letter is labeled Beis Kuf Lamed Zayin. It is Yud Ches Sivan of Taf Shin Yud Gimel, and the Rebbe writes, . I was pleased to receive what the Avrech wrote to me, thank God. I'm hearing that things are improving. His health has gotten better. He's seeing better. That's great news. And I told you back then you should do some things. I want you to keep on doing them. Here we go. The Rebbe says, "I would like you to increase your learning every day," or, um, or somebody should learn in front of you, right? 'Cause his vision's not great, so maybe somebody should read to you a couple lines from the Zohar. That's the primary book of Kabbalah or some lines from Tanya, the primary book of Hasidism. Because in those books, you regularly find the language ta chazi, come see. In the Gemara, the way-- regular way to say we're about to give you a proof for something is tashma, uh, come listen. But in the Zohar, because the Zohar is at a, I don't know, I don't wanna say higher level, I wanna say more sublime level. Because the Zohar, because the Torah, the Nistar, is at a more sublime level, we don't just hear

19:32 that Torah, we can see that Torah. That's a ta chazi, gives you a Reiya, an Elokus. Uh, ta chazi, come see. So these-- the, the language used in the myst-- in the mystical tradition, the language used in our mystical books when saying, "Let me bring you a proof for something," is not come listen to this, it's come see this. And since the word come see is all over this, the person who reads it, they'll get better vision. That is a commandment from our holy Torah that a person should be using the innermost secrets of the Torah to see Godliness in the world literally. This is also a segulah and a terufah. It's also a segulah and also a, a, a medicine, a cure of some kind to bring the light back into the eyes, to improve the vision, the physical vision, so that it should be appropriate. And also to give you the ability to see what a Jew is really supposed to see, which is how Hashem is perpetually creating the world at all times. What we got from this, although he put it in very condensed form, is that in the mystical dimension of the Torah, we have the word ta chazi, which means come see. And that is because the entire goal of the mystical dimension of the Torah is to give you the ability to see the hand of God in this world. And because of that, the mystical dimension of the Torah is both a segulah for seeing the hand

20:41 of God in this world, ahavah and yirah, love and fear of God, and true recognition of what's really going on behind the curtain, but also a really good segulah for literally being able to see well again and improving vision. The Rebbe expands upon this in a few letters. Let me give you a couple. This is Alef Shin Peh Ches, and it is from Alef Shvat of Taf Shin Yud Beis, and we're gonna jump to the middle of the letter. This person writes to the Rebbe saying that they have eye problems, and, uh, the Rebbe says, "Go to a doctor, and I hope you'll hear good news." It's known what Chazal say. Who is wise? Someone who plans in advance, someone who sees what will come in the future. But that's the simple explanation. There is a Hasidism. The Hasidic explanation of this is That is, who is wise? Someone who sees that the birth of the entire creation, of the entire physical universe and all of the spiritual worlds, is perpetually being redone at all moments by God Almighty. As it's explained in the second book of Tanya, the Shaarei Yichud V'Emunah of the Alter Rebbe. He explains there that Hashem did not create the universe one time during the six days of creation. But rather, that at every single moment, Hashem is recreating the entire universe from nothing into something. This also applies to every single Jew. And, uh, when it come-- excuse me. This also applies to every single Jew, that their health

22:05 in the physical world is dependent upon their health in their spiritual components. Therefore, when somebody does feel that a part of their body is not doing particularly well, he has to go to a doctor. Because he has to act according to nature. Because obviously, the Torah gave permission for doctors to heal, and reshus means not just reshus, permission, but also kayaf, the ability to heal. So God-- that-that's the keli for refuah, the vessel for healing in this world is the doctor. Obviously, when a person's not well, they go to the doctor. We don't seek out, uh, spiritual folk medicine. And I believe but at the same time, you have to work all angles. On one hand, you have to go to the doctor, but on the other hand, you have to work the spiritual angle of the condition that you're facing. There is a spiritual component to every physical malady. So when somebody is not well, they first of all have to go to a doctor, and second of all, they have to address the spiritual component that has to do with that particular limb that is not functioning the way it's supposed to. And in our case, in this case, what is the spiritual component behind lack of vision? If somebody's suffering from vision loss, they have a physical problem. They have to go to the doctor. They also have a spiritual problem regarding , regarding their ability to constantly recognize and see that God is recreating the world in every moment from nothing

23:18 into something. And if he is going to get a proper cure, the individual who's having eye trouble is going to, first of all, need a cure from a doctor, but second of all, is going to need a cure in that they get better at looking at the world and noticing that at all times it's being recreated from ayin into yish. Ex nihilo. I'm not just coming here, says the Rebbe, to give you a nice drashah, although it is a nice drashah. I want you to encourage so and so because there's somebody else writing this letter for him 'cause he can't see. So I want you to encourage the person I'm talking to to strengthen his learning of the Torah HaChassidus specifically, the Hasidic philosophy of the Torah, Chassidus. And to specifically be learning the Shaarei Yichud V'Emunah, the, uh, section of Tanya that discusses these principles and brings somebody to the realization that God recreates every aspect of the world at all moments. Um, the Rebbe says, "I'd like to thank the person who is writing and receiving these letters and reading them on behalf of the individual who has lost his vision for all of his help with all this." And the Rebbe give-- uh, says that, uh, "Since you did take it upon yourself to be this individual who's having vision loss, uh, to be this individual's mess-messenger, to send a letter to me," the Rebbe says, "may certainly you will accept upon yourself," "the shlichus that I'm giving you in return to

24:37 return this message to that individual." "And also, I expect you to help him," "to make sure this comes to a good outcome." So the Rebbe is giving the writer, uh, and the reader of this letter a responsibility to convey this message to the person who is suffering vision loss and to also help him with what the Rebbe is suggesting. Just to review what happened in this letter, because there was a little bit in the middle about refuos, and I, I guess it's, uh, sort of-- it, it's difficult to get the entire thing in a, in a flow when reading inside. What happened outside is the Rebbe says, obviously, when somebody has vision loss or when somebody has these sorts, any physical condition, they have to go to a doctor because, uh, because the Torah gives doctors permission heal. This this permission is not just permission, but also the ability, and therefore you cannot expect a healing to come into this world if not through a doctor. The Rebbe says that in a lot of letters, by the way. That healing doesn't come into the world without a doctor because doctors were gi-- were designated as the . They are God's blessing. They are God's, uh, excuse me, God's vessel for receiving the blessing of a healing. You can't expect healing to come into the world any other way. But that's the physical healing. Every time someone's sick, it's their body that's broken, but it's also a part of their spirituality that's broken. So after they

25:42 go to the doctor or in con-- or in concert with going to the doctor, they have to figure out what's going wrong on with them spiritually. And when it comes to vision, says the Rebbe, it's very clear what's going wrong with them spiritually. They are lacking in the area of being able to see the that is reeno-- re-enlivening the world at all times. They don't see the constant recreation in a literal way of every part of the physical world at all times. And therefore, while they are going to the physical doctor for their vision, they should also be going to the spiritual doctor, which is Kabbalah, which is which is the Zohar, as we saw in some prior letters, which is the Sefer Tanya Kedoshim, specifically the section that discusses these things. And therefore, the Rebbe's standard advice, I have another letter like this too, but I don't think we're gonna read it inside. I'm just gonna put it in your pamphlet. I have another letter like this too. I have many, many letters like this where the Rebbe says that the spiritual component of the cure for any kind of vision loss is to strengthen one's ability to see the hand of God and the constant recreation of the world at all times. And the only way to see that is through the study of Hasidus, through the study of Kabbalah. Which is why in just about all of the letters where the Rebbe talks about vision loss, he at the very least suggests

26:39 studying Kabbalah or Hasidus, and usually goes so far as to explain that it should specifically be the kind of Kabbalah or Hasidus that leads a person to . Leads a person to see the fact that God is the one who is giving birth to the world at every single moment, and that the world is completely new because just a moment ago, it didn't exist, that God's constantly recreating the world from scratch at all times. A person who learns to see that way will have solved the spiritual problem with their eyes. Of course, they'll, s-- they will still then need to go to a doctor to solve the physical part of things because the blessing for healing comes through a doctor. So what we've done today is we have demonstrated, first of all, that a number of our Rebbeim wore glasses. We even had pictures. Uh, we demonstrated that the Rebbe has very little, at least at this point that's published, that I was able to find in writing saying, "Don't wear contact lenses." But we do have very good testimony from very reliable people that the Rebbe is not a fan of contact lenses, not hard ones, not soft ones. Um, that the Rebbe, that the Rebbe, uh, even in certain cases where doctors say they really wanted it, that the Rebbe pushed back. However, the only thing we really have in writing from our Rebbe is the insistence that when it's a medical issue, you ask your Rov for Yadid, and that when it's

27:40 a Halakhic issue, you ask your Rav. Finally, we looked at some letters about losing sight. We saw, first of all, the Rebbe does quote that Gemara Masacha Shabbos more than once. We saw just one letter that does it, but he does it more than once. That somebody who's losing their vision, they should be careful about the Kiddish, about the Kiddish and Havdalah, uh, specifically based on that Gemara Masachos Brachos. But we also saw that the most recurring theme in the Rebbe's letters about a Segulah for keeping eyesight and for preventing eye lo-- uh, vision loss and for helping people who are having vision loss problems is the Segulah to learn Torah Hasidus, to study Hasidus, to study Kabbalah. Because studying Hasidus and Kabbalah brings you to the realization that God is at all moments recreating the world, and that is the spiritual component of vision and vision loss. May we all be spared from these sorts of things and only learn the positive from them. I think the positive from them, even if you don't have vision loss, is number one, if you're wearing glasses, you're not alone. You have Rebbeim to wear-- you have-- There we go. You're putting on your Rebbe glasses. You have, uh, you have a Rebbeim who wore glasses. Enjoy your glasses. Be proud of your glasses. Uh, number two, practically, a very serious discussion with a Rav, Mashpia, and doctor before thinking about contacts. There are reasons to worry about it from the Rebbe's perspective, uh, and there are

28:42 also reasons to worry about it from a simple medical perspective, so definitely check in with a doctor, a Rov for Yadid, a, um, Rav, Mashpia before wearing contact lenses. And as a practical takeaway for everybody, if people who are suffering from vision loss need to strengthen their learning of Hasidus to make sure that they see the hand of God in all places, one of the best ways to keep your vision the way it is, and in general, to keep yourself on the proper path, is to constantly be studying Hasidus, which reminds us at all times that God creates and recreates the world at every single moment. So there's a take-home message, even if your vision is perfect. And that's it. Thank you all very much.