In our ever-evolving experiences as homo sapiens aspiring to become homo spiritus, we wonder, “Why Me?” Why have I been given this unique challenge and tikkun to affect in this gilgul? Most of us are oblivious, and for good reason, who we were in an earlier incarnation. Dr, Brian Weiss in Many Lives, Many Masters suggests that groups of people tend to reincarnate together and chances are the people you encounter are familiar souls from a previous gilgul. If this is true, how do we deal with and process these encounters?
In-depth study of today’s reading of Sefer Tanya aroused a glimpse of an answer for me. Citing a famous dictum of Ethics of our Fathers, the Alter Rebbe writes “And be humble of spirit before all men.” (4:10) "This you must be in true sincerity, in the presence of any individual, even in the presence of the most worthless of worthless men." This accords, he continues, with the instruction of the Sages, “Judge not thy fellow until thou art come to his place.” (ibid 2:4) In a brilliant and incredibly perceptive insight from this passage, the Rebbe makes this novel thought:
“For it is his “place” that causes him to sin, because his livelihood requires him to go to the market place for the whole day and to be one of those who are “Yoshev Kranos,” (lit. “Sit by the corners”), where his eyes behold all the temptations; the eye sees and the heart desires, and his evil inclination is kindled like a baker’s red-hot oven, as it is written in the Prophet Hoshea, “It (yetzer hara) burns as flaming fire…” (7:6)
He continues to discuss the topic by making a distinction between others who are fortunate enough not to have to frequent “The Market Place,” perhaps they stay in the Beis Medrash all day, at home, or the like. What fascinates me by these words, in the parlance of contemporary street-lexicon, is that the Alter Rebbe is telling everyone, “Cut that person some slack!” as you have no idea what he/she is going through or must endure to eek out a living, contend with personal issues, and just make it through the day!
In attempting to parlay this amazing Torah into a resolution of the questions I posed above, I was thinking that fulfillment of “not judging someone until you’ve come to their place,” implies a tremendous intensity of the middat Tiferes, who’s best translation into English is “Compassion.” Such Tiferes leads to empathy which in truly evolved individuals, allows them to instinctively skirt reactionary judgmentalism, which is the bane of our society.
In attempting to parlay this amazing Torah into a resolution of the questions I posed above, I was thinking that fulfillment of “not judging someone until you’ve come to their place,” implies a tremendous intensity of the middat Tiferes, who’s best translation into English is “Compassion.” Such Tiferes leads to empathy which in truly evolved individuals, allows them to instinctively skirt reactionary judgmentalism, which is the bane of our society.
Embellishing a bit on the Rebbe’s interpretation of “his place,” I’d like to suggest that it may also connote the place of one’s incarnation. Meaning, that each person is so complex that not only are their personalities and proclivities, unique and pertinent, but so are their past-lives! We have absolutely no clue, literally, from which “place,” they’re coming! Conclusion? Unless we’re prophets, clairvoyants, or skilled in past-life regression techniques, let’s stop judging each other. Didn’t that British prime minister Disraeli once quip “It’s much easier to be critical than correct?”
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