How to atone for forbidden sights?

Hello,

The main repair is through complete teshuvah, which includes three stages: a. Regret for the sin. b. Verbal confession (as follows). c. Commitment for the future not to return to this sin again ever (Rambam, Laws of Teshuvah, chapter 2, halacha 2).

Verbal confession means saying, "Please, Hashem, I have sinned, I have done wrong, I have transgressed before You and done such and such, and behold I regret and am ashamed of my deeds, and I will never return to this matter" (Rambam, ibid., chapter 1, halacha 1).

In addition, it should be noted what Rabbeinu Yonah wrote in Shaarei Teshuvah (gate 1, section 15), that the sin of the eyes is atoned for by tears, as it is said (Tehillim 119:136), "My eyes shed streams of water because they did not keep Your Torah." It does not say because I did not keep Your Torah, but rather, they did not keep, because they caused the sin; therefore I let down streams of water.

And also what is written in the book Reshit Chochmah (Gate of Holiness, chapter 8), that the repair of the eyes is by looking with one’s eyes at the creation of the Creator, which it is a mitzvah to do, as King David said (Tehillim 8:4-5), "When I see Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars that You established, what is man that You remember him." And likewise to look at the mitzvah of tzitzit, as it is written (Bamidbar 15:39), "You shall see it and remember," and so on. And likewise, if one sees a Sefer Torah or a sage or an elder passing before him, he should rise before him and honor him as required by the mitzvah, and not avert his eyes so as not to see him and rise, for concerning this it is said in this mitzvah (Vayikra 19:32), "You shall rise before the aged, and so on, and fear your Hashem."

He also wrote there that among the repairs of the eyes is to shed tears over a righteous person, as our Sages, of blessed memory, said in Tractate Shabbat (105b) on the verse (Tehillim 56:9), "You have counted my wanderings; put my tears in Your bottle, are they not in Your book?" Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi said in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi in the name of Bar Kappara: Anyone who sheds tears over a righteous person, Hashem counts them and stores them in His treasure house.

And he also wrote there that the repair of the eyes is when a person looks with them in order to read Torah, especially Written Torah, and especially, most especially, when he goes up to read from a Sefer Torah in the synagogue. See there further in his holy words.

Much success,

Hillel Meirs