The Falling of the Spirit

The 'evil eye' begins when a person stops living from his inner self and begins to live through the eyes of others. What do they think of me, how do I look, how successful am I, where do I stand compared to everyone. In this passage Rav Kook explains that the evil eye is not only a force acting from outside, but also a dangerous inner movement of the soul. When the external gaze takes over, the imagination begins to work. At times it inflates the person upward, and at times it paints his flaws in a way that casts down his spirit. And then comes the chain: falling of the spirit, sadness, laziness, and out of it also a moral fall. The powers of life grow weak. One who lives only before the gaze of others slowly loses his inner point of truth. And the repair is 'to know himself according to the truth.' Not to flee from the flaws, not to become intoxicated by the strengths, but to stand upright before ourselves. To rejoice in the good that exists, to repair what needs repairing, and above all to live truth and not illusions.