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I heard on the radio, that a mystic Rabbi in a small town in Israel restored
the sight of a blind person, and now she sees again. A 22 year old female told
her story: From the age of 16 years her vision gradually deteriorated,
and then at the age of 18 years, she became blind. I knew that the reporter
was reliable. Was it a miracle?
Next day the same story appeared in the newspaper, where I read that the young
lady lost her vision during an argument with her family. Last week she received
from the Rabbi an amulet. The following day she perceived a dim light. Gradually
she regained her vision and now she sees again. Was it Hysteria?
I remained dissatisfied, and decided to find out myself.
I arrived at a hut that was located in the outskirts of the town. Inside,
in a modest room, behind a wooden table sat the Rabbi, writing an amulet for
an old lady that sat in front of him. He remembered the blind female. She entered
his room accompanied by her mother. The Rabbi asked the mother to remain outside,
and invited Farha to sit next to him. When she approached him, he noticed that
she avoided the table. He wrote the amulet and asked her to return in a week.
After finding out that she lived in Jerusalem, I learned that she was treated
also by an eye specialist. She had retinitis pigmentosa. A progressive loss
of light sensitive cells in her retina, known also as Tubular Vision; a narrowing
of the visual field, as though one were looking through a tube.
A nice story. But wait. We have touched only its surface. Before getting deeper we ought to turn to Aristotle.
Soul
'On the Soul' by Aristotle (1,2) was a source of inspiration
for generations of western philosophers. Still, to the beginner it may offer
an unpleasant surprise. Hitherto you may have believed that your soul was
eternal, Aristotle regards it as mortal. For some, the soul serves for communication
with God, a channel for prayers; Aristotle's Soul is shared by animals and
plants which obviously do not pray.
Aristotle's 'Soul' is non other then our Wisdom of the Body (WOB).
The purpose of the eye is to see, but it cannot see when removed
from the body. It is the soul that sees. Soul and body are one: 'as the pupil
plus the power of sight constitutes the eye, so the soul plus the body constitutes
the animal' (On the Soul, Book -2). The mind is part of the soul but independent
and eternal: 'The case of mind is different; it seems to be an independent
substance implanted within the soul and to be incapable of being destroyed.'
Mind
How did we get hold of the mind? Here we turn to the Bible.
Location; Paradise. Turning to the serpent, Eve said: 'God has forbidden us
either to eat or to touch the fruit of that; if we do, we shall die.' The
serpent said: 'Of course you will not die. God knows as soon as you eat it,
your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods knowing both good and evil.'
(Genesis 3: 3-5 (3)). In order to get the mind Eve and Adam sinned
the Original Sin. While the soul (WOB) is utterly selfish,
it is the mind that judges whether its activities are good or evil,
and like God it is eternal.
The original sin turned Farha's family against her. Blaming her forbidden
love, for her blindness. Until that evening she hoped that her kin forgave
her, yet their hostility proved otherwise. She escaped into her room and was
embraced by a complete darkness, followed by four years of blindness.
Imagination
How did Farha manage with her tunnel vision when she still
could see?Actually she saw the world through
a tiny hole. Everything else remained hidden behind a black curtain . Yet
she figured out how this world looked like. She imagined it, and so
could lead a normal life. Her imagining WOB (soul) reconstructed the obscure
world with the help of other senses, like, hearing, touch, and smell.
'For
imagining lies within our own power whenever we wish (e.g. we can call up a picture)'
says Aristotle, and adds:
'That imagination is not sense is clear from the following considerations:
Sense is either a faculty or an activity, e.g. sight or seeing: imagination
takes place in the absence of both, as e.g. in dreams. (Again, sense is always
present, imagination not.)
Following the feud with her family, Farha
lost hope and her imagination was turned off. Now
that the amulet protected her against these evil spirits, she started seeing again. The doctor's
diagnosis was correct: Retinitis Pigmentosa, yet without the amulet she
would not have ever regained her eye sight.
References
1.
Aristotle. On the Soul. Written 350 B.C.E
Translated by J. A. Smith
http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/soul.html
2. The four causes of disease
3.
The New English Bible. Oxford Study Edition 1972
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