עֵינֵ֣י יְ֭הוָה אֶל־צַדִּיקִ֑ים וְ֝אָזְנָ֗יו אֶל־שַׁוְעָתָֽם׃
여호와의 눈은 의인을 향하시고 그 귀는 저희 부르짖음에 기울이시는도다
Noam Elimelekh
"You must not bend etc and not recognize a face" (Deuteronomy 16:20) because it is written "you shall not have other gods before Me [lit. in front of My face]" (Exodus 20:3) and one can explain it like this: behold, the Blessed Creator is called "face of every thing", since every thing has a piece of divinity that makes it present and gives it vitality, and if, God forbid, a person thinks a extraneous thought, or looks at something evil, then one turns away and distances one's face from it. And the extraneous thoughts and the evil sightings and evil passing thoughts are called "other gods" and this is "you shall not have other gods etc" and this is [also] "you must not recognize faces" that is to say, that you will not sin and not think outside thoughts, so that you won't distance the face and become estranged from yourself. "You shall take no bribe because the bribe blinds the eyes of the wise, etc" (Deuteronomy 16:20), and at a first glance don't our eyes see many and many receivers of bribe, and they are healthy, and strong, and they die closing their eyes? But the issue is that the righteous person who is dedicated to Hashem in truth merits high levels in the eyes of His intellect, that is, the higher Wisdom, and this is "the eyes of Hashem are on the righteous" (Psalms 34:16) that the Holy One of Blessing gives merit to the righteous in the eyes of the Higher Intellect, and this is "you shall not take etc because the bribe blinds the eyes of the wise etc", meaning that the person will not merit in the eyes of His intellect in the Higher Wisdom, "and perverts the words of the righteous" that is, the righteous that speak in their holiness the receiver of bribes perverts them, that is, not just that that person will not merit Higher Wisdom, but also if the righteous want to negate their words and return that person to the good, their words will not help that person, since all their words will appear to that person as perverted.
Kedushat Levi
Before answering this question we must first understand a verse in psalms 34,16 in which David describes עיני ה' אל צדיקים ואזניו אל שועתם, G’d’s “eyes” as trained on the righteous, whereas His “ears” as tuned in to their prayers. How does an ordinary Jew, one who has been brought up to believe that G’d is not corporeal, does not possess a body, etc.,” relate to David describing physical organs as performing acts for which physical organs are required? Is it not one of the basic 13 “dogmas” of Maimonides that (article 3) “the Creator blessed be his name is not a body and He is free from all the properties of matter and that he has not any form whatsoever?”
Actually, King David, in the verse quoted from psalms 34,16 intended to convey to us a very important point. The Midrash speaking about psalms 121,5 ה' צלך על יד ימינך, “the Lord is your shadow, on your right side,” points out that just as the shadow of a human being accompanies him wherever he goes whenever he goes there, so G’d accompanies man. David’s message therefore is that when man, in his capacity of being a servant of the Creator acts accordingly, G’d on His part will act as if He were the “shadow” of this tzaddik, as if He were copying what the tzaddik does in the lower regions of the universe, in His own region in the celestial spheres. When man “enthrones” G’d by his words and actions, when his soul nightly ascends to the celestial regions it will find that the angels have prepared a great welcome for him as they have heard about his accomplishments on behalf of the Creator in the lower regions of the universe. If we were to illustrate this relationship by means of a parable, consider this.
A young son has performed an intelligent act, (according to his age and mental capacity). When this comes to his father’s attention, the father will boast about his son’s accomplishment, i.e. he will take some or most of the credit for his son’s achievement. He will do so, although, when measured by the father’s level of intelligence the son’s achievement is really insignificant.
The important factor here is that although the son is only five years old in our parable, and as such possesses the intellect of a five-year old, the father is entitled to rejoice over the fact that his son has fulfilled all the expectations a father could have of a five-year old. The same applies to human beings who serve their Creator. They are not expected by the Creator to display the intellectual maturity of the Creator Himself. Perhaps this is what David had in mind when he said in psalms 111,10 ראשית חכמה יראת ה' שכל טוב לכל עושיהם, “the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, all who practice it gain sound understanding.” It makes perfect sense therefore that when G’d looks at the tzaddikim and He observes how these physical human beings perform the commandments in the Torah and how they live up to their potential, it gives Him an opportunity to demonstrate to the myriads of celestial servants of His, that in creating a human being and endowing this species with the ability to rebel against Him through the free will He granted them, He had not erred. When a human being does good with his eyes, i.e. he displays compassion for his less fortunate peers, G’d “engraves” this fact on His throne to serve Him as a constant reminder of this fact. The same is true when a Jew “listens” to the commandments of the Torah when he hears them read out, and as a result performs them. As a reminder, G’d engraves “ears” on His throne
Actually, King David, in the verse quoted from psalms 34,16 intended to convey to us a very important point. The Midrash speaking about psalms 121,5 ה' צלך על יד ימינך, “the Lord is your shadow, on your right side,” points out that just as the shadow of a human being accompanies him wherever he goes whenever he goes there, so G’d accompanies man. David’s message therefore is that when man, in his capacity of being a servant of the Creator acts accordingly, G’d on His part will act as if He were the “shadow” of this tzaddik, as if He were copying what the tzaddik does in the lower regions of the universe, in His own region in the celestial spheres. When man “enthrones” G’d by his words and actions, when his soul nightly ascends to the celestial regions it will find that the angels have prepared a great welcome for him as they have heard about his accomplishments on behalf of the Creator in the lower regions of the universe. If we were to illustrate this relationship by means of a parable, consider this.
A young son has performed an intelligent act, (according to his age and mental capacity). When this comes to his father’s attention, the father will boast about his son’s accomplishment, i.e. he will take some or most of the credit for his son’s achievement. He will do so, although, when measured by the father’s level of intelligence the son’s achievement is really insignificant.
The important factor here is that although the son is only five years old in our parable, and as such possesses the intellect of a five-year old, the father is entitled to rejoice over the fact that his son has fulfilled all the expectations a father could have of a five-year old. The same applies to human beings who serve their Creator. They are not expected by the Creator to display the intellectual maturity of the Creator Himself. Perhaps this is what David had in mind when he said in psalms 111,10 ראשית חכמה יראת ה' שכל טוב לכל עושיהם, “the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, all who practice it gain sound understanding.” It makes perfect sense therefore that when G’d looks at the tzaddikim and He observes how these physical human beings perform the commandments in the Torah and how they live up to their potential, it gives Him an opportunity to demonstrate to the myriads of celestial servants of His, that in creating a human being and endowing this species with the ability to rebel against Him through the free will He granted them, He had not erred. When a human being does good with his eyes, i.e. he displays compassion for his less fortunate peers, G’d “engraves” this fact on His throne to serve Him as a constant reminder of this fact. The same is true when a Jew “listens” to the commandments of the Torah when he hears them read out, and as a result performs them. As a reminder, G’d engraves “ears” on His throne
Kedushat Levi
When David, in psalms 34,16 spoke about the עיני ה', “the Lord’s eyes,” he did not mean that G’d possesses “eyes” and other organs in the sense that we understand this in our regions of the universe, but what he means is if, as our sages tell us that the features of the patriarch Yaakov were engraved on G’d’s “throne,” to the question of ”whence did images of such physical organs penetrate the heavenly spheres,” both David and our sages describe how G’d has an enduring reminder of the accomplishment of the righteous and the organs they have used to serve Him and perform His commandments had them “engraved“ on His throne as a constant reminder, especially at times when His people experience a spiritual slump. At such times, the “eye” engraved on G’d’s throne may be closed instead of open. When Rabbi Yehudah in Avot 2,1 warned us to look at מה למעלה ממך, he did not refer that we should look at G’d, but he meant that we should remember that the image of man engraved on G’d’s throne reflects the condition of man down on earth as the images on G’d’s throne are not static but their condition alternates according to the spiritual condition of His people on earth. This “eye” on G’d’s throne observes what we do on earth; the ears on that countenance of our patriarch Yaakov “hear” what and how we speak. Its condition reflects whether what it heard gave G’d pleasure or the reverse. Rabbi Yehudah reminds us that it is what we do down here that determines whether our image in the celestial regions remains a positive one.