"Like water - the face to the face - likewise, the heart of man to man"
Mishlei (Proverbs) 27:19
The Sages tell us that if you have trouble with somebody, it's pretty certain that they have trouble with you too. How do they know? Like water reflects a face, so too are the emotions of a person reflected by another.
Rabbi Yehudah won't hear of it. What does he say? It's about Torah. Like water reflects a face, so too does one's effort in Torah return to him.
How you feel about God, says the Maharach Ohr Zarua, that's how God feels about you, like the reflection of a face on the water.
And the Gra? He takes it further. He says we can only perceive that tiny part of the divine that fits into our human world. That's why the prophets always had visions of a man, like the reflection of a face on the water.
But we still haven't come into the words, have we? asks the Malbim. If you look closely, you'll see. If a person wants to encounter himself, he has to look into his own heart. It will reflect him to himself, like water reflects a face to a face.
And if a person sees a problem in another? Says Rav Unterman, if a person sees a problem in another, certainly he has that problem himself. Where else could one look, if he sees a blemish on the face reflected in the water?
Reb Shmuel Yerushalmi asks - are you guaranteed to see a face when you look in the water? No, of course not. Sometimes the water is disturbed. So too a man's heart. How can you feel the trouble of your friend if your own heart is disturbed?
Like a face, reflected in the water.