Living Torah Archives

You should be careful to hear kiddush and havdalah – it helps to keep the eyes healthy. May G-d help you see many good things with both eyes, and in an ever–increasing manner. You’re spreading the light of Torah, so you need healthy eyes. Why lose something that God Almighty has given you? You must hold onto it, and G-d Almighty will help you to be successful. (Collage)

In the 1960s, Moshe Kagan was a student at 770, the Central Lubavitch yeshiva in Brooklyn, New York. It was during this time that his father was in a car accident which caused him to lose his eyesight. His father wanted to avoid bringing any unnecessary pain to his family, and suggested to the Rebbe that he might not participate in his own son’s wedding. The Rebbe did not agree, and gave him a very special blessing.

Yisroel Swimmer is a chief financial officer living in Lawrence, New York. In the 1980s, he was a child growing up in Johannesburg, South Africa. (1983)

Looking with a good eye on the entire Jewish people will also affect your physical eyes. When you look at your fellow Jew without judgment, with a “good eye,” it strengthens the health of your physical eyes as well.

Rabbi Dovid Golowinski is the director of the Kosher Organics supervision agency. He grew up in Brooklyn New York, and in the summer of 1968 was a student at Lubavitcher Yeshiva in Montreal, Canada. When he went to visit his brother in camp, his eye suddenly began to hurt - badly. Upon examination, specialists insisted that he have an operation. But the Rebbe didn’t agree.

Daniel Finkelman is a producer and filmmaker living in Brooklyn, New York. In the late 1980s he was a young child growing up in Jerusalem when he contracted a severe eye condition that made it very difficult for him to see. When his family moved to the United States, a family friend urged his father to seek the Rebbe’s blessing - a blessing that has since been fulfilled in more than one way.

Dr. Leonard Lovitch is a general surgeon in Whittier, California. Originally members of a Conservative temple in North Hollywood, he and his wife were first introduced to Chabad in the mid-1970s. At one point, still in the beginning of his career, he was stepping on an unstable stool when he slipped and injured his eye. The prognosis wasn’t good, and he decided to ask the Rebbe for advice. He did, in fact, get an answer from the Rebbe, but it had no apparent connection to the injury of his eye. (1982)

Like all parents, the Landbergs were very excited by the birth of their son. Their joy, however, was short lived when their child was blinded by a nurse’s negligence. Given the frightening prognosis, their doctor offered a surprising referral.(1973)