Blind Love

Healthy self-love gives a person strength, stability, and trust in himself. But when a person loves himself more than he loves the truth, every mistake receives an explanation, every harm becomes justified, every weakness disguises itself as a principle, and every personal desire becomes in his eyes absolute justice. This is a self-love that blinds the eyes. We must be able to stop and ask ourselves honestly: perhaps I was wrong, perhaps I caused harm, perhaps there is a trait in me that needs repair. Therefore precisely the good soul is at times full of inner criticism, pangs of conscience, and troubling dreams (this is what is discussed in the full passage in Ein Ayah), because it still hears the voice of truth and is willing to look it straight in the eye and be repaired.