Description: Chapter 1 - 13
Pirkei Avos
Chapter 1 – 13
The Mishnah had said judge everyone favorably. This is the mitzvah of ‘bitzedek tishpot amisechah,’ which we explained yesterday, many rishonim count this as one of the mitzvos.
We might wonder though, why judge at all? Shouldn’t the mitzvah rather be, don’t cast judgement on someone else’s actions at all, don’t feel the authority to decide what the nature of the act was!
First of all, it is human nature to draw conclusions. It would be naïve to think that we will not instinctively judge the actions of other people. The Torah acknowledges the human mindset, and therefore gives us guidelines on how to judge others correctly. Secondly, the Torah directs us to be active participants in society. We are not supposed to turn a blind eye to the world around us! One should not just say, “I am not getting involved; I don’t want to know, nor do I care about what he or she did.” We have to care! Judaism is about being active members in society, not sticking our heads in the sand. Failure to judge the actions of others is passively withdrawing from society.
How are we meant to work on this middah?
Social psychology studies show that when it comes to our success, we tend to attribute it to ourselves, the ‘me and I’, and when it comes to our mistakes, we tend to attribute them to situational factors. This is our natural bias. But when it comes to others, the effect is the reverse: We ascribe other people's failures to themselves and their successes to situational factors.
My successes are me and my failures are due to someone or something else. But other people's mistakes are them and their successes are due to an outside factor.
This is where the judging favorably comes in. It doesn't mean to naively invent an imaginary, unfeasible world in which everyone is right and innocent. It is teaching us to take into account that other people's failures might be beyond their control and that their successes are really their doing.
Mainly, it’s important to remember what Chazal say:
הדן חבירו לכף זכות דנין אותו לזכות
If one judges his fellow positively, he will be judged positively by the Hashem. Don’t we excuse ourself by saying: “That’s the way I was brought up, or that’s what life dealt me. What can I do? All right, so I’m not perfect”? Or maybe we say, “Well, I get it right most of the time, and I’ll try better next time!” Or better yet, we come up with all kinds of fantastic justifications for our actions? It’s not a good thing for us to personally do – but we sure want Hashem to employ those methods when judging us! That’s what we tend to do for our children, right? So, next time we jump to condemn someone, if we put ourselves in their place and think of how many justifications we could come up with – we will merit that Hashem will do the same for us!
Pirkei Avos
Chapter 1 – 13
The Mishnah had said judge everyone favorably. This is the mitzvah of ‘bitzedek tishpot amisechah,’ which we explained yesterday, many rishonim count this as one of the mitzvos.
We might wonder though, why judge at all? Shouldn’t the mitzvah rather be, don’t cast judgement on someone else’s actions at all, don’t feel the authority to decide what the nature of the act was!
First of all, it is human nature to draw conclusions. It would be naïve to think that we will not instinctively judge the actions of other people. The Torah acknowledges the human mindset, and therefore gives us guidelines on how to judge others correctly. Secondly, the Torah directs us to be active participants in society. We are not supposed to turn a blind eye to the world around us! One should not just say, “I am not getting involved; I don’t want to know, nor do I care about what he or she did.” We have to care! Judaism is about being active members in society, not sticking our heads in the sand. Failure to judge the actions of others is passively withdrawing from society.
How are we meant to work on this middah?
Social psychology studies show that when it comes to our success, we tend to attribute it to ourselves, the ‘me and I’, and when it comes to our mistakes, we tend to attribute them to situational factors. This is our natural bias. But when it comes to others, the effect is the reverse: We ascribe other people's failures to themselves and their successes to situational factors.
My successes are me and my failures are due to someone or something else. But other people's mistakes are them and their successes are due to an outside factor.
This is where the judging favorably comes in. It doesn't mean to naively invent an imaginary, unfeasible world in which everyone is right and innocent. It is teaching us to take into account that other people's failures might be beyond their control and that their successes are really their doing.
Mainly, it’s important to remember what Chazal say:
הדן חבירו לכף זכות דנין אותו לזכות
If one judges his fellow positively, he will be judged positively by the Hashem. Don’t we excuse ourself by saying: “That’s the way I was brought up, or that’s what life dealt me. What can I do? All right, so I’m not perfect”? Or maybe we say, “Well, I get it right most of the time, and I’ll try better next time!” Or better yet, we come up with all kinds of fantastic justifications for our actions? It’s not a good thing for us to personally do – but we sure want Hashem to employ those methods when judging us! That’s what we tend to do for our children, right? So, next time we jump to condemn someone, if we put ourselves in their place and think of how many justifications we could come up with – we will merit that Hashem will do the same for us!