Our Sages said: “Do not be scornful towards any person, for there is no person who does not have his hour” (Avos 4:3). That is, one should not disgrace or curse even the lowliest heathen, and all the more so a Jew — for God made man with His own image (Bereishis 9:6). One who disgraces a Jew is [thus] considered as if he disgraces the Shechinah (the Divine Presence), Heaven forbid. The only person one may look at with scorn is one’s self, since a person knows his own blemishes and imperfections. But the way of the world is the exact opposite: a person sees only the faults of others and not his own. This is because it is human nature to look for other people’s faults and then immediately mentally condemn them. Of course, when it comes to one’s self, the person will go to great lengths to rationalize and cover-up his shortcomings and convince himself that his deeds are pure and there really is no one like him in the whole Earth!
