Blei Gissen and Ayin HoRa Revisited

First, see our post from some ten years ago on the pouring of lead: Blei Gissen.

https://rygb.blogspot.com/2015/01/finally-soure-for-blei-gissen.html

A person who is involved in these lead procedures explained their perspective to me (in Hebrew, I will Google translate with some light editing).  

First, I will speak about Ayin HoRa in general. This is something I myself wrote many years ago:

I was asked by one of the Chicago Daf Yomi chevra to dwell a bit on the topic of Ayin ho'Ra (AR). It is now particularly timely to do so, as in yesterday's daf (BM 107b) we had the remarkable assertion that the overwhelming majority of individuals die because of AR and very few because of "regular" reasons.

Of course, the Rambam does not pasken like Gemaros based on AR, and I would suspect that a rationalistic approach would necessarily reject AR to either a complete or partial extent. I would be interested to know what RSRH had to say, if anything, on the topic. I would assume that the rationalist might accept AR as a form of kitrug in shomayim, similar to walking under a precarious wall - and, thus, it would not be a direct impact of the onlooker on the person on whom he had looked, but rather a from of triangulation: The aspersion cast by the onlooker makes an impression in the Heavens, and things that might have been overlooked then become significant and may doom an individual that was otherwise cruising "unnoticed' despite his iniquities.

The classic approach - that of Reb Tzadok, and even, surprisingly, the Malbim - is that rays emanate from your eyes when you look at something. When you look at someone (or even something: "Al tilcham es lechem ro 'ayin" - Mishlei 23:6) askance, the rays that emanate from your eyes are poisoned and that poisonous quality then inheres in the person or object upon whom or which you have looked. Reb Tzadok (Dover Tzedek 80a) says it works in a relative fashion, as the object of the gaze may be impervious to that type of venomous ray, such as was the case with Yosef ha'Tzaddik.

This perspective is in line with several Gemaros, such as the Gemara in Shabbos where Rabbi Shimon bar Yochay and his son Rabbi Elazar come out of the cave and everywhere they look is consumed, and then after the second time they exit RSBY's gaze heals where RE's afflicts; the Gemara in a couple of place (BB comes to mind) where Rabbi Yochanan looked at a wayward talmid and turned him into a pile of bones, etc. This is a direct impact that harms the subject or object of the rays that emanate from the eye of the beholder.

There are rationalistic explanations of those Gemaros, however, as well, including the Telzer Rov, RYL Bloch who says that making an individual into a pile of bones means to make him feel that his entire existence is meaningless.

Perhaps it is because the Rambam felt strongly that vision does not work in this manner that he rejected AR. Be that as it may, l'ma'aseh one can accept a spiritual dimension to a gaze even if one does not accept that vision works that way.

REE Dessler in Michtav Me'Eliyahu vol. 4 p. 5 offers another explanation: 

All souls are intertwined in some way - some to a greater degree, and some to a lesser to degree - but a universal connectivity is a spiritual reality. Thus, my attitude towards your soul affects its status: If we are very closely bonded spiritually then the impact is greater, and vice versa.  Still, some "grip hold" is essential: If a person is totally l'shem shomayim and other-directed; or very humble and self-effacing, the interaction between him and others is more out than in, and others who deploy AR against him will not be particularly successful.

This approach is in line with a couple of other Gemaros concerning Rabbi Yochanan (who was impervious to AR, IIRC, as a descendant of Yosef) with him causing the deaths of Rabbi Kahane (reversed) and Reish Lakish (not reversed) - while at least in the latter case the impact was not immediate (although it seems to have been direct), it seems that it was the interaction between the souls that caused the effectiveness of the AR.

Of course, "quirks" like AR bring into play basic questions of midda k'negged midda, i.e., precision in reward and punishment. They are the flip side of positive quirks like segulos. Without the balance of Olam ha'Bo (and, it seems, according to many Mekkuballim, without a counterbalance of possible gilgulim as well) they would be classic question marks of "tzaddik v'ra lo; rasha v'tov lo". These are, therefore, areas in which we cannot fully understand cause and effect, areas which HKB"H classified to Moshe Rabbeinu as "U'ponai lo yeira'u."

The person who is involved in these lead procedures wrote something similar:

The attempt to outline an intellectual path to understanding the essence of Ayin HoRa is an interesting attempt. In other words, through such an attempt, we try to adapt the matter of Ayin HoRa  to the accepted matrices of knowledge and explain it through them.

This can be fine, if it can enrich understanding, and give it additional aspects, through other horizons, perhaps educational, perhaps social and moral values, and there is certainly room to strive for this.

But the original aspect of the matter lies on deeper and more spiritual levels.

It must be understood that Ayin HoRa can exist as part of a broader spiritual reality, which includes, among other things, a good eye, and the strong power of thought (the power to strive towards achieving goals, etc.).

God, in the wonderful creativity that is only His, created us beyond the body as an instrument of influence.

Influence – “for good and for the better” (i.e., for good and for evil).

According to Kabbalah, our eyes received a spiritual power of influence at creation.

"Seeing eye" - this is not only in the physical aspect of vision, but also in the spiritual aspect of influence.

Two spiritual abilities arise from this:

To see good.

To see evil.

From the little I understand and a little experience - the eyes have the power to exert energy here or there.

A brief expansion: It is customary for us that during the Kiddush of Shabbat night, the person reciting the Kiddush gazes into the goblet of wine and searches within the goblet for the reflection of his face along with the reflection of the light of the candles.

This is perhaps also a reason why the candles should be close to the place of Kiddush. And the explanation for this gaze is that during life and especially in the important actions of life (the milestones) - the eye (physical) loses power and weakens. And the correction is that gaze into the Kiddush goblet.

The simple summary of the matter is that the power to do good or evil is found in the power of the eye's gaze, in looking and observing and thinking about the people in our space, and this includes us. A person can certainly bring an Ayin HoRa on himself. It seems to me that the first expression of this is already found in the first conversation between God and Cain: "If you do good, you will bear; and if you do not do good, you will be the one who will open the door to sin." Here there is a choice of path, a path of harm or a path of healing, and this of course also applies to ourselves.

And then that person wrote about the actual lead procedure:

Regarding the lead - it is more important for me to explain. Maybe at some later point, orally and not in writing.

Please do not treat the lead in a purely technical manner.

There is a technique, it can be learned and even a person with limitations can perform the technique. I know here (in Israel), about people who do the technique and do nonsense with it, perhaps ineffectively and perhaps even harmfully.

It is like chanting a prayer without meaning anything.

And if a certain person feels that he paid $100 like you pay at a hairdresser or a dentist - then he did not understand anything.

The lead is a tool that we received to operate with it out of awe and out of supplications.

I am experienced with lead for more than 15 years, I think, for me almost every use of lead is somewhat like a suicide mission. Because it is to represent a person before God, to fight and beg for the person they are asking for, and to understand the interpretation of what is received with the melting.

And this is very tiring. And spiritually dirtying, because of all the hard energy that is released from it rises through my pipeline and the space around me.

So that's really brief.