The Way to True Humility: How to Overcome Ego and Reach Redemption

“EVERY PERSON MUST SIT BENEATH HIS PLACE” (SHEMOT 16:29) – HUMBLE YOURSELF SO THAT YOU CAN ASCEND HIGHER!

MOREINU HARAV ELIEZER BERLAND SHLIT”A TALKS ABOUT HOW TO ACHIEVE TRUE HUMILITY AND ITS CONNECTION TO THE SEASONS OF THE YEAR, AND ESPECIALLY TU B’SHVAT

THE REDEMPTION CAN ARRIVE EVERY DAY

Every day, the redemption is supposed to come.  The redemption can arrive this second.  This second, the redemption can happen.  If we do what we are supposed to do, the redemption will come this moment!  But what is it dependent on?  Only if a person will have true humility, only if he believes that he is less than everyone, that everyone else are greater tzaddikim, holier, purer.

WHAT DOES RABBEINU SAY ABOUT HUMILITY?

Rabbeinu says (Likutey Moharan 14:5), “Because a person has to humble himself before those greater than he, before his equals, and before those lesser than he.  And sometimes, he is the smallest of the small, and he has to humble himself relative to his own level.  He should imagine himself lower than he [really] is, corresponding to (Shemot 16:29), ‘Every person must sit beneath his place.’”

THE SEASONS AND HUMILITY

Rabbi Natan says (Hilchot Orla 5, 6) that there are four seasons (tekufot) during the year, every season three months.  In every season, a person works on a different aspect of humility.  “Behold, the four seasons begin in Nisan.  It comes out that the season of Tevet is the fourth season, when there is the main “berur (elevation of Divine sparks).”  The season is three months, which are Tevet, Shevat, and Adar, so it comes out that the fifteenth of Shevat is the midpoint of the season…  These [months] correspond to the fourth level of humility mentioned above, which is to be humbler than one’s own [true] level.

RABBI NATAN EXPLAINS THE FOUR SEASONS

Rabbi Natan explains that the four seasons come to break the four aspects of pride.  Corresponding to the first season, the Rebbe says that the first thing is to believe in all the tzaddikim, all the Admorim, to believe in all the Rebbes, all the Rashei Yeshivot.  You need to believe in all of them.  All of them are tzaddikim.  The way of Breslov is to believe in everyone, to believe in every Jew, every Admor, every tzaddik.  A person thinks that he is a bigger tzaddik than all of them, a greater tzaddik than all the Admorim, rabbis, and even dares to speak [evil] of them – about this Admor, about this rabbi.  How could you speak [evil] about rabbis, about holy and pure Admorim, who are at the ultimate level of holiness and purity?

THE FIRST AVODAH – HONORING TZADDIKIM

The first Avodah [holy work] is to make an accounting, that you are smaller than all the tzaddikim, than all the Admorim, than all the Rashei Yeshivot, than all the rabbis who teach Torah day and night.  Even if you happen to know that a tzaddik has no spiritual level or understanding, no one needs to know this.  You need to honor all the tzaddikim and to know that they do wonders because they really are tzaddikim!  To believe that they perform miracles, wonders.  Why are you jealous for your rabbi?  Does it disturb you that there is another tzaddik who is involved in Torah, who perform wonders and causes salvations?  You can’t stand that there are other tzaddikim?  This is your problem, because you are jealous, because you are so tamei (impure).  You cannot stand that there is any tzaddik in the world, because you are situated in endless impurities.  So Rabbeinu says that the first thing is to stop talking [evil] about tzaddikim!  Stop disparaging rabbis!  Stop thinking that you are the biggest tzaddik in the world.

THE SECOND AVODAH – HONORING AVERAGE PEOPLE

The second Avodah corresponds to average people, to know that, “I am smaller than average people,” because can you reach the level of a simple Jew who says Tehilim with tears?  Did you ever cry saying a chapter of Tehilim?!  There are simple Jews who are average people.  They are not Admorim, not Rashei Yeshivot, but they cry while saying Tehilim.  They start saying Tehilim and tears begin to fall from their eyes.  Can you reach their level?  You don’t reach the dust of their feet!  Then know that there are average Jews who are bound to Hashem all day, and you are smaller than they are.

TO HUMBLE YOURSELF EVEN MORE

So what’s left for you to be proud about?  Do you still want to aggrandize yourself over someone?  Maybe you aggrandize yourself over wicked people who desecrate Shabbat.  Do you feel like you’re a bigger tzaddik than they are?  But do you know what a wicked Jew is?  Do you have any comprehension of what a wicked Jew is?  In another second, he’ll do teshuva (repentance) and pass you by a million levels, by a million light years.  You could never reach his pace.  Do you know how many Shabbat desecrators did teshuva, how many people who ate on Yom Kippur did teshuva?  Today, they are already Rashei Yeshivot, already themselves great tzaddikim.  Today, you can’t reach the dust of their feet.  Rabbi Akiva would say, “If someone would give me a Torah scholar, I would bite him like a donkey,” and in the end, he became Rabbi Akiva, the leader of all Israel.  So know that you can also be smaller than the wicked, and “he has to humble himself relative to his own level.  He should imagine himself lower than he [really] is.”

THE NEXT STAGE – YOUR HUMILITY COMPARED TO TZADDIKIM

However much a person humbles himself and knows that he is small, he needs to know and believe that he is even smaller than he thinks.  These four levels of humility: That a person has to believe that he is smaller than all the tzaddikim, which corresponds to the season of Nisan, Iyar, and Sivan.  After this, to believe that you are smaller than all the average people, which corresponds to the season of Tammuz, Av, and Elul.  After this, you have to believe also in the wicked, that all of them will do teshuva, and this corresponds to the months of Tishrei, Cheshvan, and Kislev.  And when you reach the season of Tevet, Shevat, and Adar, you can merit to the ultimate humility, and this is Tu B’Shvat, which is the midpoint of the fourth season, when it is possible to attain the humility of Moshe Rabbeinu, such humility where he knows that he is inferior without end, beyond comprehension.  He feels below his own level – below, below, and he has no arrogance over any Jew in the world.

THE ONGOING WORK OF HUMILITY

Throughout the year, a person works on seeing his own lowliness, to see his lack of knowledge, his lack of awareness, his lack of understanding: “Behold, here I made a mistake, here I made such-and-such a mistake.  Everywhere, I made a different mistake.”  Through this, a person receives more and more humility, and together with the work of lowliness, a person must serve Hashem with all his energy, the utmost vigor, which is Chareidi “vigor (Meretz).”  To serve Hashem with all his energy, with the utmost joy, the utmost enthusiasm, because when a person merits to feel lowliness, he suddenly feels different blood flows in his veins, the blood literally flows at a different pace, in a different fashion.  Suddenly, he feels that everything has changed.  His entire blood circulation has changed.  Suddenly, everything becomes easy, all his limbs become light.  Something new enters his organs, his blood, and he begins to feel the good life, the eternal life, a type of World to Come.

THE WORK OF LOWLINESS UNTIL THE HEART IS FILLED WITH JOY

The Baal Shem Tov said: How much a person needs to work until they see Eliyahu HaNavi in a dream!  And how much a person needs to work until they merit to say “Shalom” to Eliyahu HaNavi, and how much one needs to work until Eliyahu HaNavi will say “Shalom” back to them, and how much one needs to work on lowliness and humility in order to learn with Eliyahu HaNavi, and how much one needs to work so that Eliyahu HaNavi will wait for you at the entrance.  And through one fleeting thought of pride, that one is better than some other Jew in the world, it is possible to lose everything!