Parshat Balak: The Evil Eye
Volkswagen used to have a commercial for their Passat wagon (which has since been discontinued). It featured a young couple at a red light waiting for it to turn green. The light changes but the pick-up truck in front of them doesn’t move and stays put. Probably busy texting. The impatient woman in the passenger seat mutters to get going since “it’s not going to get any greener.” She reaches across to the steering wheel and gives the guy a honk. Hubby immediately says, “Un, why?” Sure enough a skin-headed sleeveless tough comes out of the truck, fists clenched. Hubby lamely laments, “OK… here we go…thanks honey.”
As tough-guy makes his way towards the hapless couple in the white wagon, she pleads to lock the doors. However tough walks right past the couple and begins to bang on the tinted window of the snazzy black Cadillac SUV with designer wheel-covers right behind the Passat, mistakenly thinking Caddy-driver did the honking. Seizing the opportunity, Passat-man pulls out and takes off. The commercial ends with: “The VW Passat Wagon – Lowest Ego Emissions of any German-engineered vehicle.”
The marketing team at Volkswagen had a very good understanding of the the Evil Eye – deliberately or not. First off, the Evil Eye appears in Jewish tradition, and you may have heard your Bubby or Savta say Keinahora or Bli Ayin Hara – Yiddish and Hebrew respectively for “No Evil Eye” – whenever speaking of something nice they have. Evil Eye is a subject that has drawn great fascination over the years. So much so that there is an industry around blue-eyed jewelry and knick-knacks like red strings, Hamsa protective hands and the like that purport to ward off the negative energy of an Evil Eye.
The Talmud seems to take the Evil Eye quite seriously at times, even claiming at one point that most people die from it. On the other hand, it also says that anyone who doesn’t believe in the Evil Eye will not be affected by it. Hmm, that’s a head scratcher. So which is it? Is there something real and authentic to the Evil Eye, or is this simply a superstitious creation by Bubbies worldwide?
The true meaning of Evil Eye is in the relationship between misfortune and how that might be tied to how much publicity surrounds good fortune. If you have something good and wonderful like healthy children, a good job, a beautiful spouse or a nice car – that is fine and a gift from God. There is certainly nothing wrong with enjoying God’s blessings that He has granted you. However, if that good thing creates bad feelings or ill-will in others that you could have prevented – and that is the key here, that you could have prevented – then there needs to be a reassessment by God to see if you are still deserving of that wonderful thing in your life.
God initially judged that you should have a particular success or good in one set of circumstances. However if you turn around and now utilize that success or good to make others feel bad, incomplete or lacking, then He may now feel you are no longer deserving of that particular good. Maybe you shouldn’t have that blessing that God gave you now that it’s being used to create hurt in another. Since “man proposes and God disposes”, every good in life is ultimately because God deemed it so. So if that good in now creating jealousy and inadequacy in another, then there is a reassessment on it and He might arrange for you to either lose it altogether or that it gets damaged somewhat.
As such, Evil Eye is not some arbitrary force out to get you that would necessitate amulets for protection. Rather, it is the malice that one brings upon oneself through their hubris, self-centeredness and insensitivity to how their good fortune has brought about feelings of inadequacy and unhappiness in others.
This being the case, if you are wearing a red string on your wrist to remind you of this idea, then that is perfectly fine. But if you are wearing it because you believe it can magically ward off evil spirits – not so fine.
This is the reason that Judaism sees modesty as one of the noblest of character traits. Rabbi Weinberg zt”l used to sum up the balance between enjoying God’s blessings without being showy about them by saying that “a person should take pleasure, not pride in their good fortune”. There is nothing wrong with enjoying and taking pleasure in the wonderful things you have in life – just don’t be “in-your-face” about it or think it was all your doing.
It’s always a good idea to try to travel under the radar screen and not to attract too much attention to yourself. Whether it’s the clothes or jewelry you wear, the house you live in, the car you drive, or your child’s accomplishments, it’s in one’s interest to keep a low profile and to exercise a bit of restraint. You might want to think twice before posting your newest luxury acquisition or photo of your exotic vacation on Facebook or Instagram.
Keeping a low profile is succinctly summed up in this week’s Haftara reading from the prophet Micha:
With what shall I approach God and pay my respects before God of the Heavens?
Shall I approach Him with burnt offerings and with young calves?
Will God be pleased with thousands of rams, with endless streams of oil? …
People, He has told you what is good and what God wishes from you –
Only to do justice and love kindness
And to walk humbly with your God.
Jewish tradition values those who keep quiet and who only take center-stage when the opportunity demands it, such as standing up for what is right, moral and true. Otherwise, stay in the background and let the guy in the shiny, obnoxious Caddy Escalade take the heat.
Reaching for all of the good things in life
Can provide some surprises I guess
It may be the way we are dressed
These threads that you see mean so little to me
They don’t count when they put us to rest
-Gordon Lightfoot