When Yosef was finally reunited with Yaakov, he fell on his father's neck amidst tears of long pent-up feelings. At this emotionally charged reunion, an unspoken question from Yaakov Avinu found a wordless response in Yosef Hatzaddik. About what?
Yaakov had obviously deduced that Yosef's appointment, nine years earlier, must have occasioned a grandiose parade through the streets of the capital. The Egyptian women must have been extremely eager to catch a glimpse of Yosef's beauty, as Chazal tell us. Doubtless, too, the womenfolk would have been trying desperately to be noticed. Was it possible, Heaven forbid, that in his hour of fame and acclaim, Yosef had forgotten, even for just an instant, his obligations to Hashem?
To find the answer, Yaakov needed merely search in Yosef's eyes; he would have instantly detected the smallest blot even from a decade ago or longer. Spiritual blemishes don't conveniently fade away. And those eyes were as clear as diamonds.
Yosef's holy eyes themselves told it all - 100% innocence, pristine perfection like the clearest, most sparkling diamonds. Chazal tell us Yaakov's unstinting praise: "My son", he said proudly, "you did not glance at a single one of those women."
Spiritual abuse of the eyes can reduce their physical abilities too, often noticeable when reaching middle age. However, one who protects his eyes from forbidden sights, writes Rav Chaim Palagi, ztz"l, might be zocheh to eyesight that will not dim as the years go on.
Did you know that we have spiritual eyes as well as physical eyes, with the latter mirroring and affecting the former? Whenever a person's eyes of flesh are busy looking at what they shouldn't, the eyes of his soul are becoming clouded over and successively darkened and blurred.
True, right now we might not feel how those sticky layers of spiritual dirt cling to and cover our spiritual eyes. But when Mashiach comes and we are all transported at last to where we so longed to be, back to Yerushalayim, to our holy, glowing Beis HaMikdash, we will be in need of unblemished eyes - eyes that were conscientiously guarded against defilement - to receive those dazzling rays of supernal light. All that radiance and magnificence will be too powerful for unfit eyes.
After groping in inky blackness, one tightly shuts his eyes against the blinding light of the midday sun.
Perhaps it wasn't such fun after all to have let our eyes run hefker. No wonder we daven three times a day ,...ותחזינה עינינו not just for Hashem's return to Tzion but so that our eyes will be able to actually witness it. Eyes sheltered from defilement will one day be welcomed into the shelter of His Holy House.
The Ben Ish Chai writes (Od Yosef Chai, Va'eschanan, shana 1) that a major source of pleasure in this World is eating and drinking. In the Next World, we first enter the lower Gan Eden where our souls enjoy delightful fragrances, after which we ascend to the higher Gan Eden to partake of the marvels of seeing the Divine Glory. This progression is demonstrated by the structure of the face. Lowest is the mouth, above that the nose, and topmost are the eyes; therein lies a message. At all costs preserve your spiritual eyesight. It's every Yid's fondest and deepest hope to one day bask in the ecstasy of the profound luminescence of the Shechina 'לחזות בנועם ה (Tehillim 27:4). It is a higher dimension of experience.
Though the light of the Shechina is infinitely more powerful than any blazing midday sun, this will pose no problem for eyes that are spiritually healthy and clean. For all eternity, their owner will delight in the wonder of gazing at the phenomenal luminescence of Hashem's Presence.