The other day someone said: When Noah became so drunk that he lay naked in his tent, one of his sons ridiculed his father’s nakedness, while the other two walked backwards with a covering to cover their father’s nakedness. The two sons who honoured their father were blessed. The one that did not was cursed.... Everyone is created by God. Only God has the right to judge....

But actually all three sons judged the father. All the sons judged that their father had put himself in a shameful state. Two acted with kindness and modesty to save him from further shame.  One mocked him. They all judged - discerned, evaluated, formed  a judgement about his actions and condition - but two acted with compassion.... and one was cruel.

We need to judge - between right and wrong, better and worse, stop and go - and we are meant to condemn sin. But we are not to condemn the sinner. We are not to write him or her off, and certainly not to take pleasure in the fix they have put themselves in and to relish any comeuppance or painful consequence that comes to them. There are probably only very few situations in which most of us would have any real obligation to insist that the consequences of sin be visited upon the sinner. Parents sometimes do. Magistrates do. Those whose job is to fit remedial, therapeutic or punitive consequences to wrong actions ought to do so without taking pleasure in the fall and suffering of the wrongdoer. For the most part we are called to be kind.

Judgement is an ambiguous term. It has come to mean condemnation, although an actual 'judgement' might be an exoneration or vindication. It can also mean evaluation and discernment. To tell the truth, we need much more - and not less - judgement.

- Chaikhana