Shabbat Greetings
This week’s portion, Beha’a lo-t’cha (Numbers 8:1-12:16), we are told that “Moses was exceedingly humble, more so than any person on the face of the earth.” (12:3) Wow, what a generous assessment! But what does the word “humble” mean (anav in Hebrew)? The Midrash says it means lowly and patient. (Tanchuma Tzav 13) Ibn Ezra says it means never asking for recognition or reward. Other rabbis say it means never responding to unwarranted criticism or even placing others first.
Humility appears in different guises. First, there is real humility. It is defined variously as lack of pride, haughtiness or arrogance; feeling small and unimportant in the scheme of things; feeling ordinary or insignificant. The word comes from the Latin “humus”, meaning “earth”. So “humble” means “as low as the earth relative to the sky”. Then, there is the false humility of those who know they have accomplished important things, who know others know it, but want to appear virtuous by not insisting on it. Golda Meir once said to Israeli war hero Moshe Dayan: “Don’t be so humble! You are not that great!” There is also the necessary humility of those who haven’t done much. Churchill once said of a fellow politician: “Yes, he is very humble, and he has a lot to be humble about.” And finally, there is the humility of those who want to make sure you recognize and appreciate their humility.
Here is a passage from the Talmud in which the rabbis talk about the virtues of their long-dead colleagues:
When Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai died, wisdom ceased …
When Rabbi Eliezer died, [scholarship] ceased …
When Abba Yosei ben Ketanta died, piety ceased…
When Ben Azzai died, diligence [in the study of Torah] ceased …
When Ben Zoma died, [good teaching] ceased …
When Rabbi [Yehuda HaNasi] died, humility … ceased …
Rav Yosef [replied:] Don’t include humility, because I am still here [and I am very humble]. [Sotah 49b]
What is the Jewish view of humility? Obviously, that it is desirable. Moses is presented as a paragon of humility. The Torah tells us that even a king must not feel superior to his brethren. The prophet Micah includes humility among the three things God wants us to do: Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)
The Talmud says flatly: Humility is the greatest of all [positive attributes]. (Arakhin 16b)It means, presumably, that you have to be humble enough to admit you don’t know before you can start to learn effectively. All Jewish commentators agree, however, that humility is not self debasement. It is not self-deprecation. Maimonides said that humility is the halfway point between self-deprecation and pride. (Hilkhot Teshuva 10:2)
Is humility always a virtue? Is pride always a vice? Our tradition always acknowledges human nature. In this case it recognizes the fact that without the desire for pride in our accomplishments, we would simply not accomplish anything. The Midrash says: [When God created the world and said:] “And, behold, it [is] very good”, [God] was referring to the Evil Inclination. Can the Evil Inclination then be “very good”? That would be extraordinary! Yes, [because] without the Evil Inclination, no person would build a house, take a spouse, beget a family, and engage in work. This suggests that we achieve things: to show off; to gain the admiration of others; to have more money and more possessions; to get that someone; to do better than our neighbor or to be ahead of the competition; to win; to be remembered after we die. None of this is altruistic. Without these base incentives, we would not achieve anything. There would be no progress. They are essential for the continued existence of the world. There is a time to be humble and a time to stress your accomplishments to others. You must NOT be humble when applying for a job, when applying for a raise or a promotion, when applying to college. You must NOT be humble when you want to convince someone that one should trust you, or grant you favors. In short, sometimes you have to advertise and sell yourself.
Humility and pride are simply the product of what you compare yourself to. If you compare yourself to God, to the great names in history, to the amount of knowledge you have yet to learn, or to the vastness of the universe, then humility is in order. But if you compare yourself to competitors or detractors, or when you honestly realize that you have truly done something good, something no one else has done, then pride would not be out of place. May we all remember that we each are worthy.
SHABBAT SHALOM