The Moral Instinct
Translated
by Aryeh Kaplan from Rabbi Nachman's Wisdom
Sichos HaRan,78
Fairness
is everywhere.
One
may commit every outrage but still have a sense of fairness. It may be blunted,
but it still exists. There are people who are immediately sensitive to all
unfairness.
Others
do not sense it until after they have committed some wrong.
Still
others feel no remorse until they have committed serious crimes.
But
each man has his limit. There is a degree of outrage that stimulates the sense
of fairness in every man.
I
was once in a small village. A military officer had come there demanding all
the horses, saying they were needed to carry mail. The villagers bribed him to
leave them in peace. They kept their horses and the officer had some easy
money.
Soon
one of his junior officers arrived. The commander convinced him that he should
also try this trick. The second officer went to the townsmen again, also
demanding horses for the mail. He was also bribed and walked away with a tidy
sum.
A
third officer then passed through the town. He was really in charge of the
mail, and was short several animals. He actually needed the horses and would
not be satisfied with a bribe.
The
mayor went and pleaded before the commander. The people had already paid two
bribes but would still have their horses taken.
At
this point, even the commander recognized the unfairness of the situation. He
ordered the mail officer to leave the townsmen alone, and the horses were not
taken.
This
same commander had already robbed the villagers without qualm. He had even
advised his junior to do the same. It took two crimes before his sense of fairness
could even begin to function. But by the third time, even he realized that the
situation was hardly fair. It was then that he ordered that the town be left
alone.
For
fairness exists everywhere.
It
may be buried, but it can always be reached.
It
is written in the Zohar that even the Left Side contains both right and
left. Even the unholy has a spark of the divine.
The
Left Side has a right, even though its right may not even reach the left side
of the Holy.
The
right side is fairness. It even exists on the Other Side. However, on the Other
Side, righteousness and fairness begin very late, even after the fairness of
the left of the Holy. Understand this.
©
1973 The Breslov Research Institute