BaHa’alotecha Drash 5786

There is an oft-told story about the rabbi who, looking out upon his flock on Yom Kippur, suddenly prostrates himself before the Holy Ark and declares, “Oh Gcd! Before you, I am as nothing!”

The president, upon seeing the pious devotions of the rabbi (and never to be outdone), quickly falls upon his face and also cries out, “Oh Gcd! Before you, I am as nothing!” 

A simple congregant in the back of the shul, deeply moved by these demonstrations of piety, prostrates himself as well and screams out, “Oh Gcd! Before you, I too am as nothing!”

To this, the president whispers to the rabbi: “Ha! Look who thinks he’s as nothing!”

Don’t hate me for my bad jokes.

This week’s parasha describes Moses as the humblest man to ever walk the earth. (Numbers 12:3)  How does that statement help us understand the personality of Moses? Did he see himself as a ‘nothing’? How do we define humility anyway? And lastly, why is this character trait so important? 

The definitions of humility are all over the map. Rashi succinctly defines humility as being of lowly spirit and patient with one’s self and with others. The Ibn Ezra says that Moses was humble in his estimation of himself, in that he never aspired to greatness, possessing no ambition to be elevated above his brethren. The Ramban says Moses’ humility was defined by his willingness to remain silent in the face of the hurtful, damaging rumors hurled against him. And so, says the Ramban, Gcd Himself rose to his defense. 

In the 19th century, Rabbi Israel Salanter defined humility as focusing on our own personality flaws (for the purposes of self-improvement) while forgiving the flaws in others. And in the 20th century, Rabbi Avrohom Twerski in Let Us Make Man defines humility as always looking forward, towards the next task to which we can apply our unique talents and gifts, rather than looking backwards at our accomplishments, constantly pointing to a mantlepiece sagging under the weight of the many awards and trophies.

Perhaps humility is, as Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes observed (on a very different subject) hard to define, but you know it when you see it.

I suggest that Moses’ humility was rooted in another key concept Gcd uses in these verses to describe him: Avdi, My servant. We note this every Shabbat in the morning Amidah: “Moshe rejoiced when he was given his tasks, because he was an Eved Ne’eman, a loyal servant of Hashem.

Moses’ life was utterly devoted to the service of Gcd and to the service of his fellow. He was indefatigable in this. Unlike the rest of us, he never needed a mental health day, or “me” time, or summer vacation. Moses was forever thinking about the needs of others; and when a person is wholly, utterly preoccupied with the needs of others, there is simply no time to consider the self. 

That’s an almost impossible standard, and that’s why Moses was in a league by himself. 

Humility is not lack of self-esteem, a sense of worthlessness or self-abnegation; it is rooted in selflessness and service to others. C.S. Lewis captured it when he said that, “True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.”

And it must be said that arrogance and narcissism, the great spiritual scourges of our time, are the polar opposites of humility. The famed Kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria, sometimes referred to by the acronym “Arizal,” understands arrogance to be the root of all sin, so we can infer the opposite – that humility is the root of Gcdliness.

Humility comes from being a holistic, centered person, (if you didn’t catch it, that was a shameless plug for my book entitled Holistic Judaism) one with a healthy sense of their own strengths and weaknesses. When a person has a balanced life and healthy relationships, they have a clear sense of the contribution they can make, and are thereby in a position to truly serve G-d and others.

By contrast, off-center people who feel some lack in their lives are perpetually focused on themselves, vainly attempting to fill the unfillable black hole of “what-I-need.” Any service such a person may attempt to render to Gcd or their fellow man is inherently flawed because it is ultimately self-serving.

I am indebted to my friend Brian Goldman for sharing a 2014 David Brooks op-ed in the New York Times. In it, Brooks asked readers to describe where they found fulfillment and meaning. Many of the respondents found meaning in a “small, happy life.”

He recounts the story of a young man

…who was asked by a journalist to show his most precious possession. The man…was proud and excited to show the journalist the gift he had been bequeathed. A banged up tin pot he kept carefully wrapped in cloth as though it was fragile. The journalist was confused, what made this dingy old pot so valuable? ‘The message,’ the friend replied, the message was ‘we do not all have to shine. In that moment I was able to relieve myself of the need to do something important, from which I would reap praise and be rewarded with fulfillment. My vision cleared.’ 

Moses, as great as he was, was the icon of humility because he tackled the challenges Gcd had assigned him to tackle. It is not for us to do Moses’ task. For the rest of us, humility is a willingness to accept the challenges and solve the problems that Gcd presents to us in our own lives, and to do so with quiet dignity, with grace, and without fanfare. 

As the verse in Psalms 131 states: “My heart was not proud, nor my eyes haughty, nor did I pursue matters too great and wondrous for me.” 

Most of us are not kings or generals or captains of industry; it’s probably not your job to single-handedly invent “the-next-big-thing” or abolish hate or war or hunger or avarice on your own. And though some of us will perhaps ascend to greatness and accomplish historic things; that ascension cannot be of our choosing. Moshe was elevated to greatness despite – or perhaps because – he had no ambition to leadership.

Like so many of you, I am deeply distressed about the prosecution of this war against Iran and its tentacle-like proxies; about how we are snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. About how this administration just threw a lifeline to Hezb’Allah, and by extension, to Iran. I am troubled by the mainstreaming of Jew-Hatred in the public square. I am heartsick about the hari-kiri, the self-destruction, of American Judaism. I am troubled by all of it. Al Eileh Ani Bochiyah. (Lamentations 1:16) But of all these troubles I, as an individual, can do nothing – but pray. Jared Kushner doesn’t take my calls.

We recall the quote from King David we mentioned a moment ago: “…nor did I pursue matters too great and wondrous for me.”  Instead of stressing out over things too great to fix ourselves; fretting over that which we have little or no power to control, better to do those mitzvot that Gcd lays at our doorstep: study Torah; light Shabbat candles; liberate yourself from your cell phone for 24 hours; take an active role in building up our shul; feed the poor; care for our cherished ones and our community; plant a tree, tend a garden or put up a bird feeder. 

And while we can’t solve the world’s problems like hate or war or hunger or avarice on our own, we can certainly help chip away at those problems. As Rabbi Tarfon says in Pirkei Avot 2:16: “It is not for you to complete the task; but neither are you exempt from working on it.”

The grand lesson of this week’s parsha is that those who cultivate within themselves a spirit of genuine humility, focusing on the needs of others and serving the needs of the brotherhood of man; such a person can be assured that Gcd will rise to their defense.

Not many Americans will take note that today is the 82nd anniversary of D-Day. 150,000 allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy. I knew one of those heroes – Lester Cohen, a congregant of Beth Abraham in Bangor, Maine. 4,414 Allied troops died that day, with total casualties approaching 10,000. He survived to tell the tale, and earned a Purple Heart for it. We can state with confidence that Hashem rose to the defense of the Allies on that pivotal day.

Like the soldiers of Normandy, ours is to apply our efforts to the task ahead. Quoting Rabbi Tarfon again from Pirkei Avot 2:20: “The day is short; there is much work to do; the reward is great, yet the workers are lazy; and the Business Owner is impatient.”

May we all merit, at the end of our days, to be reckoned, like Moshe, as an eved Hashem, a true servant of the A-lmighty.

Shabbat Shalom.