From this learning, I would like to take one point and see how significant the idea of visualization is. The Torah says in Parshat Acharei Mot:
וַיְדַבֵּר ה' אֶל מֹשׁ ֶה אַחֲרֵי מוֹת שְׁנֵי בְּנֵי אַהֲרֹן ָמֻתוּ: בְּקָרְבָתָם לִפְנֵי ה' וַי וְאַל יָבֹא בְכָל עֵת אֶל הַקֹּדֶשׁ מִבֵּית לַפָּרֹכֶת אֶל פְּנֵי הַכַּפֹּרֶת אֲשׁ ֶר עַל הָאָרֹן וְלֹא יָמוּת כִּי בֶּעָנָן אֵרָאֶה עַל הַ כַּ פּ ֹרֶ ת׃
And Hashem spoke to Moshe after the death of two sons of Aharon, who brought an unauthorized offering before Hashem and they died. Hashem spoke to Moshe: Speak to your brother Aharon that he not come at all times into the Kodesh that is inside of the Curtain, before the Ark-cover that is on the Ark so that he not die, for in a cloud I shall appear on the Ark-cover.
In explaining the meaning, Rashi brings a comparison, made by Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah, to a sick person who was visited by a doctor, who said to him: “Do not eat cold food and do not lie in damp places.” Another doctor then instructed him: “Do not eat cold food and do not lie in damp places so that you do not die like so-and-so died.” The latter doctor had more impact on him than the first, and similarly, we’re explicitly told “after the death of the two sons of Aharon”.
Another example can be brought from the Midrash (Vayikra Rabbah, 33:1), which recounts how Rebbe made a feast for his disciples. Straight from the playbook of Avraham Avinu, he served each a plate of tongue, except half were cooked fully and the other half cooked for only a few minutes. The result was 25 plates of soft tongues, and 25 plates of hard, inedible tongue. They began selecting the soft ones and leaving the hard ones untouched. He said to them: “Know what you are doing; just as you are selecting the soft and leaving the hard, so your tongues should be soft toward one another.”
Why did he need to severely undercook half the tongues? Better yet, why did he need to serve them at all? He could have saved himself the trouble and simply told them, “The same way one eats soft tongue and passes on hard tongue, so too guide your speech!” Correct, it was possible to convey the message without cooking and serving, but the understanding would have been very different. Seeing with your own eyes is different than hearing!
Another example is brought by the Gemara (Shabbat 30b), which teaches that Rabban Gamliel was sitting and teaching: “In the future – i.e., Olam Haba – a woman will give birth every day, as it is said: וְיֹלֶדֶת יַחְדָּו קָהָל גָּדוֹל יָשׁ וּבוּ הֵנָּה. A student scoffed at him and said it cannot be, as there is nothing new under the sun. Rabban Gamliel said to him: “Come and I will show you an example of this in this world before the days of Mashiach.” Rabban Gamliel went out and showed him a hen that lays eggs every day. The Gemara brings another incident that happened with Rabban Gamliel and his student, when to prove that trees will produce fruit every day in the future, he took his scoffing student outside and showed him a caper bush that produces three types of fruit one after the other.
Why did Rabban Gamliel take the student outside to the chicken coop and show him a hen with an egg? Why did he take the student outside to the garden and show him a caper bush? He could have stayed inside the room and told him about both the hen and caper! Why break to go outside?
The answer is – this is the power of visualization! Rabban Gamliel wanted to show him tangibly what he was talking about, and therefore he illustrated his point in reality. The visualization of the egg and caper in his demonstration was infinitely more impactful than just speaking about it!
Another example is found in the Gemara (Berachot 33a) which tells of an incident where an arvad, a venomous creature, was harming people. They came and informed Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa, who said to them: “Show me its hole.” They showed him its hole. He placed his heel over the mouth of the hole and the arvad came out and bit him, and died. Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa took it on his shoulder and brought it to the Beit Midrash. He said to them: “See, my sons, it is not the arvad that kills, but sin that kills.” At that moment, they said: “Woe to the person whom an arvad bites, and woe to the arvad that bites Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa.” Once more we can ask – could he not have said this statement without carrying and presenting the arvad?! Imagine if Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky or Rabbi Ovadia Yosef came to the Beit Midrash holding an arvad! The answer is – hearing is not the same as seeing!
Based on this principle, we can understand something else. Why does the Torah say that if a person is sold as a servant, the master has the right to give him a Canaanite maidservant from whom he will have children, and when the servant is freed, the woman and children remain with the master? The Ralbag explains, a person does not realize just how attached they become to a certain possession of theirs. Why? Because the Gemara says (Sotah 47a), there are three graces: the grace of a place upon its inhabitants, the grace of a woman upon her husband, and the grace of a purchase upon its buyer.
So, Hakadosh Baruch Hu said, “How will I educate the thief?! I will let him have children – this way he will become attached to them, and when his servitude ends, he’ll return home while the children cry out, ‘Father, don't go!!!’ Now he will feel what it’s like to part from something that belongs to you and what it’s like to lose something dear to you, and this way he will learn not to repeat the act of theft!”
