The Satan once appeared in the form of an exceptionally beautiful woman to seduce the incorruptible tzaddik Rav Masya ben Charash, by persistently trying to catch his attention. Sitting there learning, head down, Rav Masya’s face was shining like a malach. Though he turned his face this way and that, he could not shrug off the unwanted presence.
He was so afraid of the slightest possibility of any blemish to his neshama that he requested for two nails to be heated in fire and he blinded himself with them. The malach Refael came to him to restore his sight but he refused the offer. Finally, Hashem guaranteed to safeguard him against the Satan, and only then did he agree to be healed, (Yalkut Shimoni, Vayechi 161).
Rav Don Segal observes how, between the lines in this story, we pick up the message that absolutely no one’s name or fame grants him immunity from the Satan. Even this flawless tzaddik was tested.
Rav Masya, for his part, had done absolutely nothing to spark off this visit from the Satan. Looking deeper into the story behind this unprovoked persecution, we must travel back another one thousand years and meet a towering kadosh v’tahor - the legendary Palti ben Layish. Palti became the man whose kedusha Chazal would compare to that of Yosef Hatzaddik.
The passuk tells us that Shaul Hamelech gave his daughter Michal to Palti in marriage. Chazal (Sanhedrin 19b) say that Michal had earlier been pledged to Dovid ben Yishai but, owing to the particular circumstances, Shaul maintained that their betrothal was halachically invalid and that the way was clear for Palti to marry Michal.
Palti, however, held otherwise. He gave recognition to that betrothal and, therefore, he held that she was ineligible to be his bride. But what could he do about it? There was no way that Palti could possibly contradict his king. Royal protocol obliged him, therefore, to play along and go through all the motions of getting married.
When in public, he maintained the full appearance of being the king’s privileged son-in-law. But in private, in their own living quarters, the prince and princess were total strangers. As a stark deterrent against sin, Palti kept an unsheathed sword between them.
In the stillness and the dark, night after night, Palti resolutely triumphed over his secret nisayon. His heart was aflame with such a passionate love for Hashem and such an unswerving fear of sin, that it fuelled his resistance and his resilience to the very end. His psak that Michal was already betrothed was finally vindicated, and the untouched Michal became the wife of Dovid Hamelech.
In one respect, however, Palti’s record fell just short of perfection. In the area of shmiras einayim, he did not attain total perfection, in relation to his potential. In order to enjoy the full measure of his monumental eternal reward, his soul would need to be born again. Then his eyes could acquire their tikkun. This was, in fact, achieved when Rav Masya ben Charash, as mentioned above, unhesitatingly sacrificed his eyesight upon perceiving a possible threat to the spiritual purity of his eyes.