Ain't No Mountain High Aliyah L’Regel & Rav Lichtenstein’s Understanding of Religious Devotion

(17) Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.

(23) Three times in the year shall all thy males appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel.

(1) All are obligated in seeing

except for a deaf mute, an incompetent, or a minor; an intersexual, an androgyne; women, unfreed slaves; a lame person, a blind person, or a sick person; or an old person who cannot stand upon his feet. Who is a minor? Anyone who cannot ride on his father's shoulders and go up from Jerusalem to the Temple Mount, according to the House of Shammai; The House of Hillel say: Anyone who cannot hold his father's hand and go up from Jerusalem to the Temple Mount, for it says, "Three regalim" (Exodus 23:14)

Yochanan ben Dahabai, in the name of Rabbi Yehudah, taught in a braita: He who is blind in one eye is exempt from the "appearing", as it is said, (Exodus 23:17) "He shall be seen" or "He shall see." As he went to see, so he went to be seen; just as he went to be seen with both eyes, so too to see with both eyes.

R. Yochanan ben Dahabai says in the name of R. Yehudah, He who is blind in one eye is exempt from the "appearing", as it is said, (Exodus 23:17) "He shall be seen" or "He shall see." As he went to see, so he went to be seen; just as he went to be seen with both eyes, so too to see with both eyes. R. Huna, when he came upon this passage "he shall be seen," "he shall see," wept. He said, Should a servant, whose master is looking out to see him, distance himself from him? As it is written, (Isaiah 1:2) "When you come to appear before me, who has required this at your hand, to trample my courts?" R. Huna, when he came upon this passage, wept...

Rebbi and R. Chiya were discussing and walking down a road. When they came to a certain place, they said, [If] there is a member of the rabbinate here, let us go and visit him. They said, There is a member of the rabbinate here, and he is blind. R. Chiya said to Rebbi, You should stay, and not dishonor your princely [stature]. I will go and visit him. But he grasped him and went with him. When they took their leave of him, he said to them, You have visited someone who is seen but cannot see. May you behold the One who sees and cannot be seen. [Rebbi] said to [R. Chiya], Now see, you would have deprived me of this blessing! They said to him, Where did you hear this [concept that one should be sure to visit rabbis]? I heard it from the sayings of R. Yaakov. For R. Yaakov, the leader of Kfar Chetyah, used to visit his teacher every day. When he was old, [the teacher] said to him, The master need not do this, for the master is not able. He responded, Is this a small thing that which is written regarding the rabbis? (Psalms 49:10) "And he shall live on for ever, he shall not see destruction, when he sees wise men die." If [this is] so, that one who sees wise men in their death shall live; how much more he who sees them in their life!

R. Idi, the father of R. Yaakov bar Idi, was accustomed to spend three months on his journey and one day in the [study] house of Rav. The rabbis would call him "Of the house of Rav for a day". He became depressed. He read about himself, (Job 12:4) "I am one that is a laughing-stock to his fellow..." R. Yochanan said to him, In your prayers, do not [wish for] the punishment of the rabbis. R. Jochanan went into the house of study and expounded, (Isaiah 58:2) "Yet they seek Me every day and delight to know My ways..." Do they seek Him by day, and don't seek Him by night? Rather, it is to inform you that anyone who studies Torah even one day of the year, Scripture considers it, as if he studied the whole year.

It says "יראה" and we read "יראה"...meaning that man sees the Divine Presence and meaning that The Master comes to see you, the text compares your sight to his sight.