Did God, Fashion Only the Eye and the Ear

"And Isaac trembled with a very great trembling" (Genesis 27:33). This is what Scripture says: "The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the LORD has made them both" (Proverbs 20:12). Now did the Holy One, blessed be He, make only the eye and the ear? Did He not fashion all the limbs in man? Rather, what is the meaning of "the hearing ear," and so forth? You find that the Holy One, blessed be He, created three things within man's control, and three that are not within his control. Those that are within his control are the hands, the mouth, and the feet. How so? The hands -- if he wished to occupy them with the work of Heaven, with the sukkah, the lulav, the shofar, and the tzitzit, to write tefillin and mezuzot, he does so. If he wished to steal, to shed innocent blood, to rob the passersby, to commit many transgressions with them, he does so. The mouth -- if he sought to occupy himself with Torah, to speak a good tongue, to praise, to extol, to pray, to recite songs, he speaks. If he sought to speak evil talk, to revile, to blaspheme, to swear falsely, he speaks. The feet -- if he sought to walk to a matter of commandment, to visit the sick, to comfort mourners, to bury the dead, and to acts of loving-kindness, he walks. If he sought to walk to a matter of transgression, to commit adultery and to murder and to steal, he walks. Those that are not within his control are the eyes, the ears, and the nose. The eyes, how so? He was passing through the marketplace, and he saw a transgression, or something loathsome in his eyes, or a man he had no desire to see, or a ruler whom it was not his will to see -- what does he do? He sees, against his will. The ears -- they hear revilings and blasphemies, or something he has no desire for -- what does he do? He hears, against his will. The nose -- he passed along the way and smelled unclean cooked foods, or the scent of the incense of idolatry, or filthy alleys, which it was not his will to perceive -- what does he do? He smells them, against his will. And when the Holy One, blessed be He, desires, even those that are within his control are not within his control. From where? From Moses, and Balaam, and Jonah, and Jeremiah, and Jeroboam. Moses, from where? For Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman said: For seven days the Holy One, blessed be He, was coaxing Moses at the bush, as it is said: "And now come, and I will send you to Pharaoh" (Exodus 3:10). And he answers Him: "I am not a man of words, neither yesterday (temol) nor the day before (shilshom) nor since (me'az)" -- "yesterday," "from yesterday," "the day before," "from the day before," "also," "since" -- behold, seven days. And he says to Him: "Send, I pray, by the hand of him whom You will send" (Exodus 4:13). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: Do you suppose that your feet are within your control? He arose and went against his will. Jonah -- the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him (Jonah 1:2), "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city," the whole of that matter, "and Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from before the LORD, and went down to Joppa." In the end He showed him in the sea all those troubles, and the fish swallowed him, "and he called to the LORD out of the belly of the fish," and in the end the hair of his head and his beard were plucked out from the heat he suffered in the belly of the fish, and afterward he went against his will. Jeremiah -- the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you." "And I said, Ah, Lord GOD, behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am a youth" (Jeremiah 1:6). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: "Do not say, I am a youth, for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak" -- against your will you shall go, and against your will you shall speak. And when the Holy One, blessed be He, desires, even the hands are not within man's control. When? When Iddo the prophet came to Jeroboam, as it is written: "And behold, a man of God came from Judah by the word of the LORD to Bethel, and Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense. And he cried against the altar by the word of the LORD, and said, O altar, altar, thus says the LORD: Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and upon you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense upon you, and men's bones shall be burned upon you" (First Kings 13:1-2). And why "altar, altar" twice? The altar that was in Bethel and the altar that was in Dan, where these two calves were. "And men's bones" -- it is not written here "the bones of Jeroboam" but "of men (adam)," from which we learn that he showed honor to the kingship. Immediately Jeroboam said: This man is a fool. He said to him: This is the sign: "Behold, the altar shall be torn apart, and the ashes upon it shall be poured out." "And the altar was torn apart, and the ashes were poured out from the altar, according to the sign that he had given." "And it came to pass, when the king heard the word of the man of God, who cried against the altar in Bethel, that Jeroboam put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Seize him! And his hand which he put forth against him dried up, and he could not draw it back to himself." When he was standing and burning incense to idolatry, his hand did not wither, but as soon as he stretched it out against the prophet, it withered. From here you learn that the Holy One, blessed be He, was concerned for the honor of that righteous man more than for His own honor. He said to him: Do you suppose that your hand is within your control? Immediately, "And the king answered and said to the man of God, Entreat now the face of the LORD your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me. And the man of God entreated the face of the LORD, and the king's hand was restored to him and became as it was at first." And the feet too are not within his control -- a verse declares it plainly: "A man's steps are from the LORD; how then can a man understand his own way?" (Proverbs 20:24). A man walks and does not know where he is going, whether to good or to evil, whether to death or to life. And so Elisha said to the troops of Aram: "This is not the way, neither is this the city" (Second Kings 6:19). And the mouth too is not within man's control. From where do we know it? From Balaam and from Isaac. Balaam, as it is said: "But the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam, and the LORD your God turned," and so forth (Deuteronomy 23:6). Isaac -- at the time when Esau entered, he began to tremble and to say, "He shall also be cursed." The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: What do you seek? Do you suppose that your mouth is within your control? He turned back and said, "He shall also be blessed." Therefore it is said: "The hearing ear and the seeing eye."