Emor 5764
At the end of Parasht Emor, in Perek 24 Pasuk 20, [listen to the audio clip for the exact quote,] the Parasha talks about the laws of damages. And although the literal translation says that if a man inflicts a wound in his fellow man, so as he did to the other man so shall be done onto him. This sounds like the concept of eye for an eye, but the Gemara explains that such is not so. That the way we compensate for inflicting damage is through monetary payment.
The Ba’al Shem Tov has a principal that can be applied to a deeper understanding of this Pasuk. The Ba’al Shem Tov said that it is difficult for human beings to see their character defects and flaws. But Bore Olam made it that we are able to see our problems in others. In psychology they call this concept ‘projection’, where we are able to see the faults in others, but really as the Ba’al Shem Tov says, it’s the mirror image whereby we are seeing a reflection of our own problems. And therefore the Pasuk might be saying that a person that sees or inflicts a wound or a blemish on his friend, so really that infliction or that wound is happening to him. This means he is seeing a blemish in others that really applies to himself.
The way they explain that is by imagining a person who is walking in the street and he sees hundreds of people hustling and bustling, and running back and forth. Now imagine asking this person what he sees in the street. Of course he is not going to be able to see everything for there are thousands of things that are happening all at once. So his mind is like a selective filter. It filters out different things that he will pick up. Someone else might look at the same situation and pick up another thing that is taking place in this busy area. The mind can not handle to pick up millions of messages at once and process them. It would be overwhelming. So the mind filters out different things. But Bore Olam created it so that the minds would specifically filter in things that apply to him. So it is hard for one to see his own faults, but Bore Olam will let him see his problems in others. Therefore it’s very important to remember that when one is speaking Lashon Hara about somebody else, he is actually is inditing himself. He’s actually incriminating himself by revealing to everybody what he is lacking in.
And that’s the explanation on the Pasuk. Be careful when you inflict a wound on somebody else, for when you criticize or knock, or when you point out the blemishes in somebody else, really that’s happening to yourself. You are revealing to everybody your own shortcomings and shortfalls.
So we have to be very careful not to expose ourselves to other. But it’s a good test if a person wants to know where he is lacking in, he can just measure how he sees others and then we would know exactly a barometer of where he is holding himself.
