הבו לכם אנשים חכמים . . . ואשימם בראשיכם "Provide for yourself men who are wise . . . and I shall appoint them as your heads" (Debarim 1:13). In Ben Ish Hai Derashoth it says that it would have been more appropriate to have said, "I shall appoint them as your judges". Hakham Yoseph Hayim, 'a"h, answers as follows:

The Hakhamim (those who are wise) are called "the eyes of Israel" because they are the ones who look closely at the deeds of the Jewish people and examine them. Our Rabbis of blessed memory say, " A wise man's eyes are in his head". This is a difficult statement to comprehend. Do not all people have their eyes in their head?

The answer is that a fool does not see his own shortcomings, but only the shortcomings of others. Therefore, he is likened to a person whose eyes are in his feet because he does not look at his entire body. A wise person, on the other hand, has his eyes in his head and can see his whole body and all that it does. That is why the Holy One Blessed Be He created us with our eyes in our heads to hint at the fact that a person must examine himself from head to toe, in order for him to realize his failings.

The reason it uses the word heads, is because, since the Hakhamim are the eyes of the people, they will observe closely the deeds of the entire community. This is in contrast to those judges who do not examine the deeds of all the community, and whose eyes appear to be in their feet.

(See Ben Ish Hai Derashoth, Debarim)

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