I had an interesting thought recently: What do you call someone who always judges favorably?
…Gullible.
Of course, the halacha is more complicated. However, there is an undeniable trend in the stories that the tzaddikim judged favorably even when the Torah did not require them to.
There is a story of the Chofetz Chaim advising the wife of a rabbi. The wife was upset that her husband allowed people to take advantage of him.
The Chofetz Chaim said, “True, if someone is always good to others, he might sometimes suffer. However, if he were insensitive to other people, they would suffer because of him. In the long run, when a man’s good and bad deeds are weighed against each other, he will realize that it is better for him to have suffered as a result of his good deeds to others, rather than for others to have suffered because of him.” (Amud HaChessed)
Sarah Brodsky says
Very inspirational! Hard to do, though..
Elle says
oh i like this way of looking at it!
Anonymous says
We are to judge other Jews favorably. Not to automatically think the worst when we don't know what the truth really is and we will never know that until we walk in his shoes. It is advisable for us to judge our brother favorably because however we judge our brother – with strict din or rachamim – that is how Hashem judges us. Mida kneged mida.