By Marco Del Monte
Ayin Hara: What True Protection Stems From
In Parashat Vayechi, Jacob blesses Joseph with unusual words: "Joseph is above the eye."
Jacob also blesses his grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh, wishing that they grow "like fish in the midst of the earth". The Sages explain that both expressions allude to the same concept: protection from the *ayin hara*, the evil eye.
What do Yosef and his descendants have in common? The fact that the *ayin hara* has no power over them. From this arises an essential question, as old as humanity: what is the *ayin hara* really, and above all, what is the Torah's way of protecting oneself from it? Amulets, formulas, superstitious gestures? The Torah's answer is surprisingly modern, rational and mystical at the same time: protection does not stem from fear or superstition, but from a subtle action that is very difficult nowadays when everything must necessarily be published: the transformation of the gaze. Not by fighting the *ayin hara* directly, but by cultivating its opposite: *ayin tovah*, the good eye. The Sages are drastic. Rabbi Yehoshua teaches that the *ayin hara* harms not only others, but first and foremost the one who possesses it: the evil eye takes a man out of the world (Pirkei Avot 2:11). It is not magic: it is a law of the soul. Those who look with envy, comparison and resentment consume themselves from within. Jealousy burns energy, obscures the joy of one's own portion and weakens clarity. The Sages explain that those who cannot rejoice do not live fully. The Torah therefore proposes a mirror principle: those who look well bring good upon themselves as well. Mishlei puts it without mincing words: “He who has a good eye shall be blessed” (Proverbs 22:9). This is not a poetic wish, but a real dynamic: *ayin tovah* opens channels of *berachah*, because it makes man similar to the ways of the Holy One, Blessed be He, who is good to all. This principle is engraved from the very beginning of the Torah. A Midrash recounts that all the letters presented themselves before Hashem to be personally the root of the generation of all Creation, but the Bet won, because it is the letter of *Berachah*-Blessing. For this reason the first word of the Written Torah, Bereshit, begins precisely with the Bet. The message is radical: the world is born under the sign of blessing, not of suspicion. The same logic also governs the Oral Torah: the first tractate of the Talmud is called by a specific word: *Berakhot*-Blessings. It is as if the Chachamim were saying: even before studying and distinguishing, learn to bless-well, that is, to speak-well. If the eye is good, everything else falls into place. In Parashat Vayechi this teaching takes shape in human events. Yosef is defined as “Ale Ayin… above the eye”: he is above the *ayin hara* because he did not use his gaze to desire what was not his; he mastered the eye, and therefore the gaze of others has no power over him.
And when Yaakov blesses Ephraim and Menashe, he says: “may they grow like fish.” Fish are covered by water; the *ayin hara* does not dominate them, indeed they continue to proliferate, Rashi explains. Water—the Sages teach—is the Torah. Those who live immersed in the Torah, with discretion and depth, do not need to expose themselves in order to exist, and above all they are surrounded by protection and life. My teacher Rav Yehuda Kahaloun Z”L taught me from the writings of the Ben Ish Chai that food in a pot closed with a lid cooks better and in less time. Now another profound law can be clarified: whoever “sends” something outward becomes its first channel. Every thought, gaze or word passes first through the one who generates it. For this reason, those who send judgment, envy or hostility must let that evil transit within themselves, and are therefore struck by it first. Conversely, those who send good, blessing and *ayin tovah* pass that good through their own soul, and are the first to receive its effects. All this could be expressed with an essential rule:” – nothing unites except with that which is of the same kind-מינים במינים “.
Only what is kindred can attract and unite. If a person is tuned to frequencies of envy and bitterness, they activate and attract those very frequencies. If the gaze is good, broad and blessing, it connects naturally to the channels of *berachah*. The *ayin hara* is not an external force that strikes at random: it is a resonance. The best sorcerer able to send the evil eye was Balaam, he whose eye was closed, dull; unlike fish which always have their eyes open, that is, they always see with a good eye and are therefore blessed like the sons of Yosef. To this is added another cardinal principle of the Talmud: “With the very measure with which a man measures others, with that same measure he is measured.” Just as a man looks, so is he looked upon. Just as he judges, so is he judged. Heaven does not respond arbitrarily: it returns the same quality with which man places himself in the world. A harsh gaze activates severe judgment; a benevolent gaze opens channels of mercy. From this derives a simple and powerful conclusion for our lives: “He who looks badly, hurts himself; he who looks well, becomes a source of good primarily for himself and also for others.
And so, as children of Yosef, let us learn to grow like fish: silently and in depth, beneath the surface of the gaze, and within the living water of the Torah and of *berachah*.
Because where *ayin tovah* dominates, the measure of Heaven becomes a measure of blessing.
Shabbat shalom
Translated from the Italian with Google Gemini. The Italian text is the original.