A person may ask what he should do if others start up with him. He may say: I didn’t start the fight. They did. What did I do wrong?
Regarding this, Rav Meir of Premishlan zy’a said, ‘Every machlokes has two guilty parties. A person cannot fight with himself. It is only possible for an argument to exist if there are two sides fighting with each other. This is a clear pasuk (Mishlei 26:20): ‘When there is no wood, fire goes out. When no one complains, strife is silenced.’ Rashi explains that these two things are the same. Just like you can’t have a fire without wood, you can’t have a machlokes if either side refuses to participate and remains silent.’