The Tzemach Tzedek the third Chabad Rebbe said something that really upgraded my spiritual path

In a talk on “loving your fellow as yourself,” he explained the verse “Pure in eyes, from seeing evil” – the verse speaks about God who sees no evil.

Oh really??? Did not God punish the Jews repeatedly – heck, wiped out the world at one stage, save Noah, because the world was filled with violence.

The truth is, that this explains a fundamental approach humanity must have toward evil.

For we are born naïve – we see no evil and hear no evil, until evil both sees and picks on us.

As they say, a liberal is a democrat who hasn’t been stabbed yet.

Once we ourselves have experienced the vicious sting of evil, not only can we not forget it, we will naturally – as the mind’s primary purpose is to protect us – see evil in every nook and cranny!

PTSD is proof enough, that even a single highly traumatic event, can alter the mind – unfortunately, forever!

However there is a third approach (to childhood naïveté, adult cynicism) and that is God’s eyes!

For God of course can distinguish between light and darkness, good and evil – he sees with great clarity acts of selflessness and acts of selfishness – heck, it’s what he made! for the deeper meaning behind the very first fundamental and perhaps raison-detr’e of creation, light/darkness – which couldn’t have been physical, for the sun was created on the fourth day, is; as Rashi (the most famous Biblical commenter explains) “these refer to the acts of good and bad people respectively and you may think, they are equal in God’s eyes (as he created them both) no! God saw ‘that the light is good!’”

So God certainly – like a computer programmer who creates your avatar as well as the bad guys challenging it, all in the hope you’ll win the game – is one hundred percent cognizant of the evil in the world.

But, and here’s the punch line, evil doesn’t make him see evil!

Now if you saw evil, how would you not see evil?!

Here’s the astonishing simple and insightful perhaps life-altering answer.

There is a person who you both see and don’t see evil in – do you know who? – you!

We are capable of both seeing our faults, without being angry at ourselves, for having them.

Why do we have a unique double standard – being able to despise another for theirs, while still loving ourselves with ours?! – the answer, simple enough – we have self-love which buries the evil from being something so terrible that we should not have love!

Bingo – in other words, for as most people, I have been through the first two stages of life, (childhood naiveté and adult cynicism) I realized, that to be a good person doesn’t mean to not be able to distinguish – to not be able to see evil, but what it does mean is, that just as I don’t hate myself for the stupid things I do, so to, evil in others, must never cause me to God-forbid hate them!