What the Rav said:
There are some people whose ‘service of G-d’ is to find faults.
Like Cain who brought up a sacrifice of the ‘psolet’ (the chaff).
Rabbi Nachman says (Lesson 38, Likutei Moharan) that his ‘service’ was to find the psolet in everyone.
Dad is not ok, Mum is not ok, Hevel is not ok. This was his ‘service of G-d’.
There are people whose service of G-d is to act this way, to criticize, to find fault, to condemn. This comes from Cain.
This was the service of Cain. He said, ‘Master of the World, everyone here is a wicked person, I’m the only Tzadik. In me, you found the only person who is a Tzadik in this generation. Have mercy on the world, so that they will all become my students and then the redemption will come.’
Even Eliyahu Ha Navi said, ‘I am the only remaining prophet of Hashem’, and he was punished for saying that. Hashem said to him, now you’ll stop being a prophet.
My thoughts:
The yetzer hara is really, really good at what he does.
He’s so good, that we don’t even notice him.
One of his favourite ways of fooling us is to dress up in clothes of righteousness.
‘I’m only telling you this for your own good you know!’
‘I’m trying to help people here!’
‘If we don’t find the problems, how are we going to find solutions!’
Etc…
There’s an abundantly plentiful supply of rationalisations and justifications.
But, we should know, finding fault is the work of the yetzer hara.
Finding the good is the work of the yetzer tov.
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