Ayin Hara (Evil Eye)

Ayin Hara is when a person looks with jealousy at another's success, thereby arousing judgment against them.

Causes

There are several things mentioned in Chazal's works that cause ayin hara, which one should avoid:

• Counting Jews not through another medium (like the half-shekel), as well as counting other things (money, etc.)
• Father and son being called up to the Torah consecutively
• Eating without washing hands. About this the verse says "Do not eat the bread of one with an evil eye"
• One should wrap a child in a tallis on the day he enters cheder, so that the evil eye of the Satan, who wants to disturb his Torah learning, should not affect him

In the Descendants of Yosef HaTzaddik

The Gemara says that the evil eye has no power over the descendants of Yosef HaTzaddik.

This is learned from the verse "Ben poras Yosef, ben poras alei ayin" - and the Gemara says this should be read as if "olei ayin" meaning that Yosef's descendants are above the eye - the evil eye.

According to another opinion, we learn this from when Yaakov Avinu blessed Menashe and Ephraim (Yosef's sons), saying to them and Rashi explains that "veyidgu" means they should be like fish of the sea upon which the evil eye has no power.

The reason the evil eye has no power over Yosef is because he did not look at the Egyptian women who walked on the wall to see him, and therefore merited that the evil eye would not affect him.

Damage Caused by the Evil Eye

• The first Luchos (tablets) were broken because their reception was before the entire world, and the evil eye entered them
• Sarah Imeinu caused the evil eye to enter Hagar's fetus, causing her to miscarry
• Rabbi Eliezer says in Pirkei Avos: "An evil eye... removes a person from the world"

Evil Eye Through the Sense of Sight

• The commandments in the Torah forbidding making idols and statues negate the possibility of drawing from impure spirits through the sense of sight and receiving the evil eye for the Jewish people
• If a tzaddik curses and looks with an evil eye at something specific, another tzaddik is needed to cancel the potential harm
• Bilaam tried to harm Israel through his sense of sight and use the evil eye against them, Moses saved them
• Eliezer, Avraham's servant, refused to enter Lavan the Aramean's house before Lavan cleared the house of idols, so as not to be harmed by the evil eye through the impure spirit of the idols

The Rebbe's Approach

Caution Regarding the Evil Eye

Generally, the Rebbe dismisses fear of the evil eye.

In response to someone who wrote to the Rebbe about his friend who fears the evil eye, the Rebbe answered: "In such matters, when one pays no attention to it at all and completely diverts their mind from it, they nullify them."

The Rebbe added that since he mentioned the evil eye, he should check his tefillin and mezuzot, and his wife should give charity and light Shabbat candles.

On the other hand, many times the Rebbe was careful to say "without an evil eye."

He also instructed Rabbi Zalman Gurary, when he wanted to make a celebration for the completion of his sixth Torah scroll, to do it privately due to concerns about the evil eye. However, he emphasized that one should not learn from this for other matters.

Evil Eye Among Chassidim

The Rebbe says that among Chassidim who are connected to the Nasi Hador (leader of the generation), the evil eye has no power. Just as Rabbi Yochanan said that he was from the descendants of Yosef, upon whom the evil eye has no power. So too with Chassidim, "the seed of Yosef" (our generation's leader whose name is Yosef).

Completion of the Rambam

Before the first completion of the Rambam study cycle, the Pnei Menachem (the Rebbe of Gur) asked the Rebbe why they were doing it with publicity, since it's known that the first tablets that were given with publicity were broken because of the evil eye. If so, perhaps it would be better to make the completion ceremony privately?

To this the Rebbe answered:

It states in the Gemara that regarding matters of Torah - even publicity before sixty myriads (600,000) is not enough... The giving of the Torah occurred in the presence of sixty myriads of Israel, a number that only included men after bar mitzvah or twenty years, and besides them were women and children, and also the "mixed multitude," and besides them - many angels, the heavenly chariot, etc., etc. - publicity and commotion without comparison! Therefore, even if there is concern (of something undesirable) as a result of the commotion and publicity that was at the giving of the Torah - protection from this is guaranteed regardless!

Further Reading

"Hitkashrut", issue 993, pp. 9-10. Issue 994, pp. 10-12.