The Secret of True Humility: The Power of a Broken-Hearted Sigh
Class No. 44 | Tuesday morning, Parashas Bereishis, 23 Tishrei 5756, Isru Chag Sukkos at the Yeshiva. (Continued in No. 45)
A profound discourse explaining why a person has nothing to be arrogant about, since any wicked person can do teshuvah (repentance) and surpass him in the blink of an eye. Through wondrous stories about the tzaddikim of Chassidus, it is revealed that true humility and the simple sigh of a broken-hearted Jew are more precious in Heaven than any service of Hashem done out of arrogance.
A person misses the proper time for reciting the Shema, yet he still acts with arrogance. First of all, you must begin to believe in all the tzaddikim, to believe that they are truly righteous. After that, begin to believe in your friends—let us see if you are capable of believing that they are more righteous than you. And then, you must begin to believe even in the wicked, realizing that very soon they may do teshuvah (repentance) and surpass us, just as Rabbi Akiva surpassed everyone.
After all, we see how people who are far away return in teshuvah (repentance) and surpass everyone, for they all have the status of "captured infants" (those raised without Torah knowledge). There was a man who, during a protest, beat someone mercilessly, literally breaking all his bones until he had to be taken away in an ambulance. Years later, that attacker became a baal teshuvah (returnee to Judaism) right here in Mea Shearim, and he spent weeks searching for the man he had beaten in order to beg for his forgiveness. Ultimately, he became a baal teshuvah who surpassed everyone.
There was also a soldier who, twenty years ago, while still completely secular, was driving a jeep at top speed. Suddenly, he and his friend saw burning tires in the middle of the road at Kikar HaShabbat. They almost drove straight into the bonfire, and he jumped out with his weapon, nearly harming the protesters. Today, thank Hashem, he is a baal teshuvah with peyos (sidelocks) reaching the floor. A person never knows which wicked individual will do teshuvah tomorrow, study Torah day and night, and easily surpass him. So what does a person have to be arrogant about? What is he so proud of—the fact that he neither learns nor prays?
Humility Does Not Require Effort, Only Recognizing the Truth
The "Mesillas Yesharim" writes that there is absolutely no need to "work" on humility. What does it even mean to work on humility? We were once visiting some Litvaks (Lithuanian-style yeshiva students) and we mentioned that Rebbe Nachman said one should study Mesillas Yesharim in order to begin being a Jew. A person might think to himself: "I am from 'Shuvu Banim', I am a Breslov Chassid, and that is it—I can do whatever I feel like." But it does not work that way. One must acquire patience and forbearance.
When coming to the tzaddik, the goal is to avoid anger, reflecting the verse:
"You shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the Sabbath day... let every man remain in his place" (literally, "sit beneath himself").
This means knowing that I am worse than everyone else. "Beneath himself" means beneath my own self—recognizing that I am such a lowly person, lower than myself. It is enough just to look at the tzaddik and one immediately acquires humility and lowliness, because the entire essence of the tzaddik is nothing but humility and lowliness.
The Trembling of Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz
It is told of Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz that he would constantly say: "Just as a person has a will to live, so too must he have a will to be smaller than everyone else." To believe that I am the smallest of all. Believing this truly is not difficult.
Once, the wife of Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz upset their servant and said a hurtful word to him. Rabbi Pinchas said to her: "How could you dare say such a word to him? A Jew is a very precious thing!" There was a water carrier in his home named Hershel. In those days, water carriers were considered the most simple and lowly of people, individuals who did not know how to read or write, whose entire job was to draw water from the wells and distribute it to homes.
Rabbi Pinchas said to his wife: "I tremble before Hershel the water carrier!" They asked him: "Why do you tremble before him?" Rabbi Pinchas answered them: "I tremble from his humility. He is truly lowly in his own eyes, and that is a person's entire portion in the World to Come."
The Sigh That Pierces the Heavens
Sometimes, Heaven makes a person a water carrier just so he can attain true humility. Once, a certain water carrier came to Rabbi Baruch of Medzhibozh and asked for a blessing. Rabbi Baruch said to him: "I know what you asked for this year on Rosh Hashanah, and I know what they answered you from Heaven."
The Jew was astonished: "The Rebbe knows what I asked for and what they answered me?"
Rabbi Baruch told him: "Yes. You requested that you want to sit in the Beis Midrash (study hall) day and night, that Hashem should provide you with an abundant parnassah (livelihood), so that you could recite Tehillim (Psalms) from morning until evening. You only wanted to serve Hashem. And what did they answer you from Heaven? That the sighs you let out when you are drawing water, your 'krechtzin' (sighs)—'Woe is me, alas for me, what will become of me? What will be my end?'—these sighs surpass all the Tehillim you could possibly recite all week long without interruption!"
A person thinks: "I read Tehillim, I saved the generation, everyone will come to receive blessings from me." But no. Specifically when you are a water carrier, broken and crushed, crying out from the depths of your heart: "What will become of me?", and then, when you have a free hour, you recite Tehillim genuinely with a broken heart—that is worth more than all the Tehillim you could say all week out of arrogance. Sometimes, a person is made into a water carrier from the very start, because in Heaven they want to hear his sigh. This is more important than all the Torah, all the prayers, and all the Tehillim.
Joy in Humiliations
Therefore, Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz said that he trembles before the water drawer. He trembled from his lowliness, from the fact that he was so lowly and submissive in his heart, not considering himself to be anything at all. After all, a person can be a water drawer and still be prideful: "I am the most diligent, I draw water the best, I run the fastest, and I distribute the most water." To merit being a water drawer with true lowliness—only a unique individual in a generation merits this. And that water drawer truly merited this; he was at the pinnacle of lowliness and genuinely considered himself as nothing, an absolute nothingness.
Rebbe Nachman zt"l highly esteemed Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz, who nullified himself before the water drawer and said, "When will I reach such lowliness?" This is true lowliness.
When a person feels within himself that he is an "absolute nothingness," and someone comes and shames him, telling him the truth about himself—he should derive immense joy from this. He should rejoice that an opportunity for humiliation and lowliness has come his way, because it shows that Hashem is having mercy on him and showing him who he truly is.
Part 1 of 3 — Lesson No. 44