“And Moshe said this is what the Almighty said, around midnight I’ll go out in the midst of Egypt and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt will die.”(Shemot 11:4)
Rashi comments that H”S told Moshe that the plague of the death of the firstborn would come exactly at midnight, but when Moshe repeated this to the Egyptians he said “around midnight”since he wanted to leave some space for error. The plague indeed came at the exact time given by H”S and the Egyptians called Moshe a liar, even though he was very close to the right time.
This pasuk teaches us how the power of a person is to find fault in others.
There are people who are always looking at what is wrong with another person. They are experts at finding inconsistencies in what people say or do. Just as the Egyptians were able to call Moshe a liar-an extreme term- for what they considered to be a mistake, so too faultfinders use strong language to condemn or belittle others. This can come either by having a low self esteem or because of being a perfectionist, either way such a person must learn to see the good in others.
The way to do it is by training oneself to look at others with the right eye (love and kindness) and ourselves with the left eye (discipline, judgement) not the other way around.
When we look at the good in others and we look at ourselves to see what can be improved we develop the attribute of mercy and H”S will also look at us in this way.
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