Chazal tell us that Pharaoh’s astrologers foresaw that the Jewish savior’s downfall would occur as a result of water. They were even able to pinpoint the exact day on which Moshe would be born. Pharaoh’s own daughter, who found Moshe, took him home and raised him in the royal palace. Following the advice of his astrologers, on the day that Moshe was born, Pharaoh issued an edict to drown all male infants upon birth. The astrologers claimed that the threat of a Jewish savior had been averted. They were, of course, wrong, since Moshe’s death was not caused by drowning, but rather by his involvement in the waters of Merivah. We may question the astrologers’ actions. Since the sign that they saw actually alluded to another situation, how could they assume that once Moshe was placed in the Nile River, the sign from Heaven had disappeared? Obviously it was still present. Were they so myopic that the sign which they presumably saw yesterday had disappeared today–if it was alluding to something else? How could they say that they did not see the sign when it was apparently still there?
Horav Elyakim Shlesinger, shlita, infers a profound lesson from the astrologers’ “myopia.” A person can receive a clear vision from Heaven, yet, if his perspective is distorted, he will either not see, or he will misinterpret the message. A person sees what he wants to see. One who wears blue-tinted glasses will always see blue, regardless of the actual color. His vision is tainted by the tint! As far as the astrologers were concerned, the downfall of the Jewish savior would occur with his drowning in the Nile River. Nothing else mattered, and no other sign would change their erroneous interpretation. Myopic vision is very often not related to vision of the eyes.
