Humility β The Greatest of All! The Weekly Parsha with Rabbi Menachem Azoulay
Parshat Shemot β What Did Moshe See in the Bush?
How wonderful is the trait of humility. True humility, our Rebbe teaches, is not a feeling of worthlessness and loss of value. On the contrary, it is the true valueβ¦
"And the children of Israel sighed from the labor and they cried out, and their cry ascended to God."
Again and again, the holy Torah hints to us about the power of prayer.
At times it seems to us that there is no chance. We are so deeply immersed in desire or a bad trait that we think we might never overcome it⦠Yet, we pray, we ask, we mention the subject of our prayer at every free moment, until we feel the change. The prayer has worked.
The power of prayer is taught to us by the story of Rabbi Shimon, the student and attendant of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov zy"a:
It happened when Rabbi Shimon's child fell gravely ill. He ran to his Rebbe with tears, asking him to pray for his child's life, which was in danger, that Hashem would grant him life and health. Rebbe Nachman listened to his crying student but did not respond.
Night. By the sick child's bed sat his mother, looking at him with eyes full of sorrow and grief, his condition was not goodβ¦ The mother's sorrow reached the heavens: she clasped her hands, and warm words began to flow from her mouth, words boiling, from a torn and broken heart, words of utmost simplicity: "My Father in Heaven! Look at my great sorrow! See my son's suffering, have mercy on him and send him a complete recovery!β¦"
The next morning, at dawn, Rabbi Shimon knocked on the doors of the tzaddik with a renewed request for his son's recovery. When Rebbe Nachman saw Rabbi Shimon, he hurried towards him and exclaimed: "Look and see how great is the power of simple prayer! The child's decree was already sealed, but thanks to his mother's warm prayers, thanks to the sincere prayers that burst from a broken heart, the sick one was granted healing! Her simple words pierced the heavens and brought salvation! And if that were not enough," concluded the tzaddik, "the motherβs prayer achieved that they added many years to her son's life!"
This child recovered completely and indeed lived to a ripe old age β he lived around a hundred years! And so it is written in the verse: "And the children of Israel sighed from the labor and they cried out β and their cry ascended to God."
Humility β The Greatest of All!
"And he saw, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed." Why a bush? How wonderful is the call of humility in the Gemara (Shabbat 67a): "Bush, bush, not because you are higher than all the trees did Hashem rest His presence upon you, but because you are lower than all the trees did Hashem rest His presence upon you," that humility is a condition for prophecy (Nedarim 38a) and the resting of the Divine Presence (Sotah 5a).
Rabbi Natan, the student of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, teaches us that only if we learn to completely subdue pride, only if we reach the ultimate nullification, then we will attain true humility.
Rabbi Natan succeeded, thanks to his perfect humility and nullification, in transmitting the holy light of Rebbe Nachman to future generations without any obstruction, and there is no other example in our history of such complete nullification of a student to his Rebbe.
"When one is told to be humble," our Rebbe teaches, "he might err and fall into a low and poor mental state called 'mochin dekatnut' and imagine in his mind that this is humility. But this is only false humility, the counsel of the evil inclination, which tells a person that humility means worthlessness and lowliness, smallness and inferiority. Weakness and defeatism. If a person loses his value, if his mind is diminished and his wisdom is blurred, if he feels he has no power to act or that his deeds are not desirable and have no value β is this called humility?
"True humility, our Rebbe teaches, is not a feeling of worthlessness and loss of value. On the contrary β true humility is the value a person has, as he is connected to his Creator and nullified to His will. Thus β his strength is revealed even more, thus β his virtues shine with precious light, thus β he attains spiritual elevation and great knowledge. From this humility, he finds the strength to stand firm against all obstacles, he does not feel weak and poor" (Rabbi Erez Moshe Doron).
"For one must be humble to the utmost degree of humility, to be truly nothing, without any error or ulterior motive, and yet be very strong and courageous, and not allow oneself to fall in anything" (Likutei Halachot, Tefillin, Halacha 5).
Our Rebbe tells us (Likutei Moharan, Torah 4) that there is no such reality where a person hears a compliment and does not awaken a thought of pride. "For it is impossible that a person does not come to some greatness when he hears his praise." Therefore, one must be very careful, and when he hears his praise β he should say "Baruch Hashem" and thus immediately return the praise to Hashem, for this is the truth β that everything is from Him, blessed be He.
Humility β The Greatest of All! The Gemara says (Avodah Zarah 20b) "and it is the father of Torah and good traits, and because of its praise and goodness, it is difficult to find, and a person must overcome his inclination, and with strategies, wage war against his inclination that entices him to become haughty." The Gemara also tells us elsewhere (Niddah 30): "Even if the whole world tells you that you are a tzaddik, be in your own eyes as a wicked person."
How great is the humble person who does not 'hold himself' and does everything in secret, who is impressed by others even though in his stature he is greater than them.
"And he will see you and rejoice in his heart"
Aharon is the elder brother. He sees how Moshe, his younger brother, rises to greatness but does not resent it. He is not jealous.
Hashem says to Moshe: "And he will see you, and rejoice in his heart," and Rashi explains: "Not as you think that he will resent you for rising to greatness." Indeed, the greatness is Aharon's.
How difficult it is to truly rejoice in a friend's joy when I myself am yearning and have not yet merited salvation. On this, our holy Rebbe says that it is a very great virtue. "And he will see you, and rejoice in his heart" β this is the essence of the rectification of redemption, through the great peace he will have with you and will not be jealous at all, on the contrary β he will rejoice in his heart. Ephraim and Menashe also merited that the blessing with which children are blessed on the eve of the holy Shabbat is called by their name ("May Hashem make you like Ephraim and like Menashe, etc.") because this one did not become jealous and this one did not become proud.
"For this is the essence of life and existence which is through joy and peace, and this is the aspect of "And he will see you and rejoice in his heart" mentioned above, through which the main redemption from Egypt occurred, because Aharon was not jealous of the greatness of Moshe, his younger brother. For the essence of redemption is through joy as mentioned above, whose essence is through the love of friends who strive to truly draw close to Hashem, which is the aspect of "And he will see you and rejoice in his heart," as mentioned above" (Orach Chaim, Hodaah 6, 61).
To rejoice in a friend's joy, to look with good eyes at every Jew β this is hard work. It is the opposite of our nature which is to see bad, to disqualify, especially those who are different from us, to look sideways and be envious.
To rejoice in a friend's joy, to love every Jew, to love Hashem β these are the true lives. "And this is the aspect of the vision Moshe saw in the bush, that he saw the bush burning with fire but the bush was not consumed. Therefore, Hashem showed this to Moshe at the beginning of Israel's closeness, for Hashem wanted to show Moshe the greatness of Israel's love, that He chooses them to draw them close to Him from all seventy nations, and hinted this to him in the bush, just as the bush burns with fire and is not consumed, so too Israel can cleave to Hashem even though He is a consuming fire, for it is said of them "And you who cleave to Hashem your God are all alive today" (Orach Chaim, Chanukah, Halacha 4).
May it be Hashem's will that we merit the wonderful virtues that arise from the parsha β faith in the power of prayer, in humility which is the greatest of all, in true joy and in a friend's joy, in love and peace with all of Israel, Amen.