The Desire of Our Eyes

Our Haftorah reading today tells the story of Shimshon, Samson. An angel appears to his mother who is barren and announces to her that she will have a son. He is to be a lifelong nazir (nazirite). Her husband is doubtful and asks to see the angle who upon her prompting reappears and confirms her story.

Many times people draw connections between Samson and Yochannan the Immerser (John the Baptist). In his birth story, the angel appears to the husband, but he doubts and is struck mute. The angel tells him that while his wife has been barren she will have a son. Yochannan is born and is consecrated to God for his lifetime as a nazir.

But I don’t want to talk about that today. Instead I would like to contrast Samson with Yeshua. Samson is dedicated to God by his parents but he is impulsive and lustful. He flies into rages, goes on killing rampages, and is a womanizer. (Samson liked the shiksas!) He violates his nazirite vows. He drinks honey from the carcass of a lion and has drinking parties with his buddies.

The Talmud says that Samson was blinded because he followed his own eyes. He says to his parents that he wants a Philistine woman because “she is pleasing to my eyes”. This is, say our sages, an example of middah keneged middah, measure for measure. Samson follows the lust of his eyes and therefore loses those eyes. Perhaps a fitting and poetic punishment.

Yeshua was also born after an angelic announcement and dedicated to lifelong service of Hashem. He was intended to be a redeemer just as Samson was. Samson was to redeem Israel from the Philistines, Yeshua the whole world from its sins. In contrast to Samson, however, he kept his eyes on Hashem, not his own desires. In the John 5 he says “I tell you that the Son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; whatever the Father does, the Son does too.” And in the Garden, just before his arrest, he tells God that he desires life but will do his Father’s will.

We are to be like Yeshua, not Samson. We are to keep our eyes upon God not upon our own desires. The Torah helps us to curb these desires, to know what is holy. It places boundaries on our behavior. We live in a society today where everyone follows his or her own desires. This is good to some extent, but it leads to people applauding greed, lust, envy, and the like.

Keeping our eyes upon Hashem takes work. We have to be attentive to our own impulses and recognize them for what they are. We have to cultivate a habit of awareness of God’s presence in our daily lives. Today is Day 46 of the Counting of the Omer. Its theme is Netzach of Malchut, Endurance of Divine Presence. This speaks to the need for us to practice God’s presence throughout our lives! The mitzvoth help us towards that goal. And kavannah, inner focus and attention, is key. We cannot experience God’s presence by rushing into things, or doing the mitzvot by rote.

The Torah tells us that Samson had seven locks of hair. These are called in Hebrew, machlefot; plaits or braids. (They could have been dreadlocks, which would be really cool since I am a Reggae music fan!) We have our own braids, our own machlefot. They are not made of hair but threads. They are our tzit-tzit. They remind us of the Torah and its commandments and how we are to behave. There is a story told, most likely apocryphal, about a man who saves money and goes to the most expensive prostitute in town. As he is undressing he looks upon his tzit-tzit and realizes what he knew all along, that this was a great sin he was about to commit. He tells her that he cannot and explains why. She is so impressed that she quits her profession and converts to Judaism. This story is told by the Rabbis to remind us the importance of our tzit-tzit as reminders to keep our eyes on God. In fact, we recite in our liturgy the words of the Shema, that we will look upon them and not follow the desires of our eyes!

Let us not be like Samson, chasing after every desire of our eyes.

Let us be like Yeshua, who kept his eyes on Hashem.

May we look upon our own machlefot, our tzit-tzit, and remember that there are boundaries to our behavior, regardless of our desires.

May we pray for Yeshua to empower us to live a life of a nazir; dedicated to God.

Shabbat Shalom!