Two eyes: One to view one's self and one to see others.
Two eyes: A good eye and an evil eye.
Two eyes: One which is benevolent and one which is
critical.
Two eyes: One of them is blind and the other catches every
detail.
Two eyes: One sees more to the right and the other sees more
to the left.
They never see eye to eye.
Each eye when used alone can distinguish up from down, and
side to side, the vertical and horizontal dimensions
respectively. Each eye alone is, however, incapable of adding
the third dimension, that of depth.
Each eye brings the picture from its own unique angle and
this slight inaccuracy requires focus. When these two
perspectives are brought into focus, we perceive a third
dimension. We perceive near and far, shallow and deep. We can
judge distance and fathom space.
Two `I's: One thinks of himself. One thinks of others.
Two `I's: One is good and one is less good.
Two `I's: One is caring and the other jealous.
Two `I's: One is forgiving and the other carries grudges.
Two `I's: One examines his deeds and changes his behavior and
the other looks for opportunities to criticize others.
Two `I's: One is the good inclination and the other is the
evil inclination.
They seem to be at odds with each other but they can learn to
work together. They can both be harnessed with the yoke of
Torah and good deeds to do the will of their Creator. This
causes the depth of Jewish perspective to grow. Thus we
develop 3-D vision.
Because we know how much we crave this or that pleasure, we
can understand how hard it is for our neighbor to curb her
appetite.
Because we struggle with our kids as they grow, we won't
judge our neighbors when their children behave like
children.
Because we feel bad when our tongues slip, we'll quickly
forgive others who speak impulsively.
In short, we'll use our critical eye for identifying the
areas in which we ourselves need to improve and we'll use our
magnanimous eye for overlooking our neighbors' faults. Did I
say faults? We'll use our good eye to see only the
positive in our neighbors.
We'll slowly deal with all of these messages and we'll learn
to interpret them with the proper perspective. We'll see
Hashem, others and ourselves with heightened awareness of our
Divinely-granted relationship. We'll learn to see how far
from Hashem we can stray. However, we'll also learn that by
harnessing these seemingly opposing inclinations, to work
together, we enter a new realm. The realm of awareness of our
ability to serve Hashem with every speck of our strength,
with every aspect of our being.
