The Rebbe Who Didn't Believe

The Tiferes Shlomo relates that the holy tzaddik Rav Fishel of Strikov adamantly refused to believe that any Jew ever sinned. Even if someone reported to him that a Jew had, Heaven forbid, transgressed a prohibition, he would deny the report. "No Jew could do an aveira (sin)," he would say.

This belief came from his immense sanctity. He was so attached to Hashem, and his ahavas Yisroel was so strong, that he never saw anything negative in any Jew, as it says in Parshas Balak, "Lo hibit aven beYaakov v'lo ra'ah amal b'Yisroel."