Chaim asked those in the room, “Why is it that when a Rov rules that a cow that is worth thousands of dollars is treif, the ruling is accepted without question but when a Rov rules against someone in a din Torah, even if it is only over a small amount of money, the ruling is not accepted and the losing party cries and complains?”
No one offered an answer, so Rav Chaim said, “I will explain it to you. The middah of jealousy clouds a person’s mind. A person is prepared to lose thousands of dollars as long as no one else gets that money. If someone else takes his money, however, he can’t take it!”
He used this idea to explain the pasuk (Bereishis 4:6) that says that Hashem asked Kayin, “Why are you upset?” What was the question? Kayin was upset because Hashem did not accept his korban. What was Hashem asking?
The answer is that Hashem was asking Kayin if he really was upset that his offering was rejected, or if he was upset because Hevel’s was accepted!
The Great Middah of Generosity:
The Mishnah (Avos 2:12) relates that Rav Eliezer said that the best middah is to have an “ayin tova”. Rabenu Yona explains this to mean the trait of generosity. The reason it is such a good middah is because a generous person who has a “good eye” and sees the good in others will be worthy of acquiring all other good middos.
