Judging favorably doesn't really require such fancy footwork. As the saying goes: Don't judge a man till you've walked a mile in...

A Lot of Hot Water

It was Friday afternoon and the water was hot. It was Shaindle's turn for the shower. "Shaindle," said my wife to our nine year-old daughter, "please go easy on the hot water. Your father and I still both need to take showers."

The warning was in vain. Lukewarm describes my shower only charitably; my wife's shower, if the second law of thermodynamics be true, was worse.

From the lips outward, my wife and I tried to actualize the great principle of "judge favorably" that we've gleaned from Ohr Somayach's column "The Other Side of the Story." "Maybe I used too much water for the dishes," said my wife. "Or maybe there's some other explanation," I said.

In our hearts, however, we agreed to one thing: Our budding adolescent was guilty of yet another act of gross self-centeredness.

That night the real culprit revealed himself, as a trickle of water appeared from the crack in the wall where the bathtub meets the tiles. (Aha! So that's why that mysterious crack had been developing for the last couple of months!) In the morning, that trickle became a whoosh of spurting water.

After Shabbos, the plumber replaced the rusty pipe which had been rotting away in our wall for who knows how long, and which was to blame for who knows how many instances of "inconsiderate behavior." Too bad it's not that easy to replace our rusty "heart pipes" so that we can learn to judge others - yes, even our children - favorably.

Do you have a story to share?

Were you in a situation where there was the potential to misjudge a person, but there really was a valid explanation? Has a friend or a relative ever told you how they were in such a situation?

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