As Dave and I were discussing the laws of Shmirat Einayim, it seemed to me that some of them were antiquated, considering the society around us. "Get real!" I told him, "This isn't the ancient Middle East, where women walk around with veils over their faces." He stared at me calmly.
"Steve, you know perfectly well that the Torah was written for all places and all times. It doesn't matter if you happen to be in Babylon or in Burbank."
"Well, I happen to be in midtown New York! And you know as well as I do what the challenges are around here. It's very nice to say 'find an alternate route.' There is no alternate route! One block is as bad as the other."
"Ok, there's a way to deal with that too. If you have no choice at all, lower your gaze."
"My what? Lower my what?"
"Your gaze, the angle of your vision. Focus more on the ground than on what's above it."
"I'll bump into something."
"No you won't. Tomorrow I'll show you how to do it; with just a little practice, it'll be second nature."
So tomorrow Dave is giving me" lower-your-gaze lessons," showing me how to use my eyes and feet to get where I need to go without breaking the Shmirat Einayim rules. I hope it's not like learning to swim. I was never good at that.
These e-mails are excerpts taken from the book "Windows of the Soul" by Rabbi Zvi Miller of the Salant Foundation.