Seeing the Goodness in One Another | Yossi Green

It’s been quite a few years now, since the song Aderaba was written. The words of Aderaba are where R’ Elimelech of Lizhensk taught us that we have to see the goodness in our brothers and sisters, and look away from anything that's not the goodness. There was a Talmid of a Talmid, his name was the Tiferes Shlomo, who wrote the exact same idea in the pasuk where Yaakov Avinu tells Yosef, that when he sent him out to go visit his brothers, he says, What that means is he told Yosef, he says, I hear from you... I mean, I'm paraphrasing, of course. A lot of times, you're telling me things that you saw the brothers do this, do that. You should really see the good in your brothers. You should see the perfection in your brothers. When Yosef HaTzaddik was faced with this big Nisayon in Mitzrayim, which was the most difficult place for a Yid to be in, in those times, it says that he remembered דיוקנו של אביו. And I'm, just like, wondering: דיוקנו של אביו? If a person has a Nisayon and suddenly he sees a picture of Yaakov Avinu, it wouldn't be hard to be עומד בניסיון. I think the concept was דיוקנו של אביו meant he remembered what the last few words that his father had told him was Use your eyes for seeing שלימות and goodness in other people. This may well have been the Segulah that Yaakov Avinu gave us for Shemiras Einayim. We all know it's a problem. We all are aware that it’s a challenge that we go through life with, but what can we really do, actively? Where’s the עשה טוב? The עשה טוב is: Go look, go find another Yid and say, Look at that! A Yid, a Yid with a heart. A Yid who’s perfect. Every Yid is perfect. If I'm going to use my eyes to see the goodness in others, that's going to help me, that’s מידה כנגד מידה, you know, everything we know it’s all מידה כנגד מידה, that will help us with Shemiras Einayim. Think about that for a minute. What could a Yetzer Hara throw against a Yid who's constantly looking out to find something goodness in another Yid? And this will ultimately bring us to the גאולה שלימה. We know that the גאולה שלימה is כאיש אחד בלב אחד, and that this happens as a result of seeing the goodness in one another.