בְּצֶדֶק תִּשְׁפֹּט עֲמִיתֶךָ – You shall judge your fellow with righteousness (19:15)
Rashi paraphrases the appropriate ma’amar Chazal on this, from the Gemara in Shabbos 127b, that ת”ר הדן חבירו לכף זכות דנין אותו לזכות – that the Rabbis taught that one who judges his fellow favorably is judged favorably in return.
The Ba’al Shem Tov explains the mechanism through which we are judged when we leave this world. When a person gets to Heaven, he will be ushered into a courtroom, and will be told he is required to pass judgment on a case. They bring the case before him, and the prosecution speaks, then the defense. This new-comer-come-judge pounds the gavel and declares the defendant guilty.
The angels pull him aside, and they say to him, “R’ Yid, the man we are judging is you. Don’t you remember that time you…”. They then list the amount of times he was guilty
R’ Yisroel Reisman points out that this is why we call this process דין וחשבן – a ruling and accounting. The ruling comes before the accounting.
R’ Reisman asks a poignant question – this mechanism will work on everyone. Everyone that is, except people who already know this. When it is eventually and inevitably their turn to judge, and they declare everyone and everything innocent, when they are informed “R’ Yid, this man is you” – will they feign surprise and truly be absolved? (more…)