As we start our journey into the Tanya we come across a powerful, foundational, concept of Chassidus: "The Baal Shem Tov's Mirror", if you will.
Whenever we see anything in anyone else, good or bad - it's a reflection of ourselves.
Whatever we see in others, is a message from HaShem of something that we are not seeing properly inside of ourselves.
There's an old saying that when you point at somebody, there are three fingers pointing back at yourself.
In the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov he takes a lesson that a priest is allowed to see any blemish except for, ‘chutz’, meinigei atzmo, his own blemish.
The Baal Shem Tov re-punctuates it, that we see any blemish ‘chutz’, outside of ourselves, because of our own blemish.
Today we study the approbation of the three sons of the author. Even though when they include the name of their father in their signature as is the jewish custom they're talking about the same person, Rebbe DovBer who became a rebbe, described his father as “Kadosh Yisroel”, sanctified of Israel.
The brother Chaim Avrohom who became a prominent rabbi describes his father in the signature as “marana varabana”, master and teacher.
The brother Moshe spent his life in hiding from the church because of the humiliation he caused them. He simply called his father “Gaon, genius, and Chassid”.
We always have to remember that whatever we see in the world around us, good or bad, it's a reflection of our own character
Study today’s tanya in full: https://www.chabadmed.com/dailystudy/tanya.asp?tdate=11/24/2021
Video of today’s thought: https://youtu.be/mD9veAPVuUo