Based on a lesson in tora.us.fm
Proverbs 23:26:
My son, give Me your heart, and let your eyes keep My ways.
Moral Instruction
Son! Let me teach you something important about the thoughts of your heart; let me guide you to guard your eyes.
Parallels
The Sage asks his son to guard his heart (the seat of thought) and his eyes because these two are the primary mediators between man and sin, especially sins related to harlotry.
❶ The Sage goes in the way of G-d as He commanded in the Torah: Numbers 15:39
15:39 This shall be fringes for you, and when you see it, you will remember all the commandments of the Lord to perform them, and you shall not wander after your hearts and after your eyes after which you are going astray.
you will remember all the commandments of the Lord:
Because the numerical value of the word צִיצִית is six hundred
ת = 400, צ = 90 , י = 10 = 600
Add to this the eight threads and five knots, and we have a total of six hundred and thirteen 613 (the number of commandments in the Torah). [Num. Rabbah 18:21]
and you shall not wander after your hearts:
Hebrew. וְלֹא תָתוּרוּ , like “from scouting (מִּתּוּר) the Land” (13:25). The heart and eyes are the spies for the body. They are its agents for sinning: the eye sees, the heart covets and the body commits the transgression. - [Mid. Tanchuma 15]
Deuteronomy 11:18
11:18 And you shall set these words of Mine upon your heart and upon your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand and they shall be for ornaments between your eyes.
And you shall set these words of Mine:
Even after you have been exiled, make yourselves distinctive with My commandments: Put on tefillin and make mezuzoth , so that these will not be new to you when you return. Similarly, it is said, “Set up markers for yourself” (Jer. 31:20). - [Sifrei]
Indeed, shortly after the command of The Book of Numbers (Numbers 25), the children of Israel arrived at the plains of Moab, and fell into a trap planned by Midianite and Moabite women (S. Schreiber)
❷ It may be the Sage is David, and he is warning Solomon, who said:
Ecclesiastes 11:9 :
11:9 Rejoice, O youth, in your childhood, and let your heart bring you cheer in the days of your youth, and go in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these God will bring you to judgment.
Rejoice, O youth, in your childhood:
Like a man who says to his slave or to his son, “Sin, sin, for one time you will suffer for all.” Here too, the wise man says: “Rejoice, O youth, in your childhood and go in the ways of your heart,” but be assured “that for all these, the judge will bring you to judgment.”
David apparently knew Solomon, and knew that he would stray after his eyes, and take foreign women they would disgrace him in deep ditches (S. Schreiber)
See also other verses about guarding your eyes.
My Comments:
The heart and the eyes are the main mediators between man and sin.
Sin in Hebrew is חטא which is related to the word החטיא , missed the target. A sin is missing the point , making a mistake, sometimes a very costly one.
The way a person commits a sin is: the eye sees, the heart covets and the body commits the transgression. - [Mid. Tanchuma 15]
How does one Guard the Eyes?
Mentioned here are:
This shall be fringes for you, and when you see it, you will remember all the commandments
ציצית
Bind them for a sign upon your hand and they shall be for ornaments between your eyes.
תפילין
And you shall set these words of Mine upon your heart and upon your soul
לימוד
In addition the Talmud States:
Even so did the Holy One, blessed be He, speak unto Israel: ‘My children! I created the Evil Desire, but I [also] created the Torah, as its antidote; if you occupy yourselves with the Torah, you will not be delivered into his hand.
