The evil eye is one of the things which remove a person from the world. It is well-known that Chazal said that ninety-nine people die because of the evil eye and only one in the normal way of the world. A person must do everything that he possibly can in order to guard himself from this. He should try not to be seen by the other people to be great in wisdom, deeds or money. He must, however, do this cannily, so that the people around him do not realize that he is being careful to avoid the evil eye. The point of this is so that the people around him will not be upset with him that he is suspecting them of being people who give others the evil eye.
A person should not cause an evil eye to others, nor should he check which good things others have, nor should he sit in their shop or look at it or talk about it so that if something bad happens to it, his friend will not blame him for the damage. If at any stage a person has to mention the praises and good things of his friend, he should immediately bless him that the evil eye should have no power over him.
There are many charms in the holy books which help to avoid the evil eye. The best thing of all is prayer which is the most effective of all these ideas, for Hashem has mercy and listens to the prayer of all mouths and saves His people Yisrael from the evil eye and all other bad things. In any case he should not hold himself back from performing a good deed because he is worried about the evil eye (e.g. to bring a poor man into his house or to speak in public to teach the people knowledge) as “one who is fulfilling a commandment of the Torah will not know anything bad” and the merit of the good deed will shield him from all harm. The Gemarah says that one who is worried about the evil eye should say “I am a descendant of Yosef over whom the evil eye had no power, as it says “Yosef is a favored son whose favor is spread over the eye of the beholder” which Chazal explain to mean that Yosef rises above the effects of the evil eye. This is a good thing for a person to say every day.
