"Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai said to his students, "'What is the good path that man should folllow?' Rabbi Eliezer said, 'A good eye." (Avot 2:13) Just as we must look at our friend with "a good eye," so too, we must look at ourselves with a "good eye." In light of knowing our imperfections and character flaws, how do we keep a positive focus when viewing ourselves? We might think that recognizing our shortcomings brings us to know the truth of ourselves. However, the flaws of our personality are the influences of our material aspect, which is external to our essence. Therefore, our flaws are not the truth of who we are. Our essence is our holy and pure soul that HaShem created and instilled within us. The truthful way to view ourselves is to see ourselves as a being of pure goodness. We use our inherent goodness, to look within and cleanse our hearts from the influence of our negative influences. In this way, we learn to define ourselves by the truth of our essence, our good and holy soul.
The true view of man, both ourselves and others, is to know, unequivocally that man's essence is eternally good and holy.
Envision a stalk of wheat. It contains kernels of wheat that will be transformed into bread, the staff of life. Connected to the wheat is a bit of inedible chaff. It is easily removed by tossing the wheat into the wind. The wind carries away the chaff and reveals the perfect stalk of wheat. So too, just as soon as you view yourself as a pure and holy soul, your external flaws will immediately fly away in the winds of truth.
(Based on Ohr Yisrael, the writings of Rav Yisrael Salanter)
