A Twitching Nerve
(Picture courtesy of spraygraphic.com)For the past week, a nerve under my right eye has been noticeably twitching non-stop, day and night. A doctor that I know told me this condition usually indicates fatigue or may be the physical manifestation of stress.
While I have tried to get more sleep recently, I understand that I may also need to address a deeper spiritual reason to alleviate this issue. I asked Rabbi Lazer Brody if he thought that the fact that this condition is affecting my eye is indicative of the need for me to be more careful with shmiras einayim, or whether there be something else as well.
Rabbi Brody responded,
"Strengthen bitachon - your eye is looking at some human rather than at Hashem - that's why it's quivering. "
I immediately understood that his answer related back to the Degel Machaneh Ephraim's teaching of trusting only in Hashem and not His intermediary agents. Now, I need to daven to Hashem to allow me be zoche to achieve this.
15 Comments:
I've had the eye twitch for a short while now and have been wondering what it's all about. Thanks for clearing it up for me.
That's interesting. May the eye turn toward HaShem and stop its twitching!
I remember reading a segulah for the eyes, something to do with Kiddush and touching some of the wine to the corner of the eye.
Havdala, not Kiddush.
ASJ, b’gashmius, drink less coffee and sleep more. Did the doc do a neuro exam (although eye twitch is much less worrisome than if it were a skeletal muscle)?
Crawling Axe: Thanks for your advice. By the way, I didn't go see a doctor. I just spoke to a doctor I know and asked him about it and had him look.
As I said, there is no reason to worry, but if it continues, see a doctor to do a neuro exam (he’ll ask you to look in different directions, stand on one foot with your eyes closed, that sort of thing).
Many people have fasciculations, and in the vast majority of cases, they are benign.
There is the segula by friday night kiddush to glance at the candles in order to restore the 1/500 of our vision that was lost during the week by taking long strides. I always thought vision refered to 'perspective'.
There is the segula by friday night kiddush to glance at the candles in order to restore the 1/500 of our vision that was lost during the week by taking long strides. I always thought vision refered to 'perspective'.
>> I remember reading a segulah for the eyes,
>> something to do with Kiddush and touching
>> some of the wine to the corner of the eye.
> Havdala, not Kiddush.
Actually, there is also a segulah to look at the Shabbos lecht while making kiddush.
P'si'oh gassoh (taking wide strides while walking) affects ones eyesight. But, I don't know if that would be related to a twitch in ones eyelids.
It is said of the Netziv of Voloshin that he never sought the help of doctors. Once he did call a doctor. The doctor checked him, and told him that he had a problem in his mouth and wrote him a prescription. After the doctor left the Netziv tore the prescription to pieces. His family asked him: If you ordered the doctor, then why did you tear the prescription. And if you did not plan on taking his advice, why did you call him.
The Netziv answered that he doesn't usually need a doctor. He can tell from what part of his body is ailing on what he has to "fix" in his observance of Torah so that the ailment will go away. However, of late he was feeling generally ill and he did not know what part of his body was responsible. The doctor revealed to him that the ailment is in his mouth. Now the Netziv knew that he had to concentrate on things concerned with the mouth (Brachot, etc.) and he would be cured.
Regarding getting more sleep, it seems that person needs to balance his real need for rest with that of Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 1:4.
I don’t think S"A talks about real, medical need. Most people cannot function without certain amount of sleep. What S"A talks about is not lying around additional few minutes. In other words, you should sleep 6–8 hours. But if you woke up after a certain amount of sleep, but a little lazy to get up immediately, you have to think about your Father in Heaven standing over you and get up with vigor.
Crawling Axe: Indeed! Yet I find knowing how much sleep a person should get to be a delicate issue since a person does not know at what exact second he is better and his yetzer hara tries to convince him all the time that he does need more sleep.
ASJ,
Does sustained viewing of the computer monitor aggravate this condition? If so, frequent blinking or use of eye drops could help. Or time away from the computer.
It doesn't seem to make it worse. Thanks for the suggestion though.
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