48 Ways - 008 Humility in Torah

Humility – To Go Anywhere For The Torah

One of the 48 kinyanim to acquire Torah is anavah (humility).

The Midrash says that Har Sinai merited to receive the Torah because of her humility. All of the mountains of the world claimed that they were each deserving of the Torah due to their unique greatness, while Sinai felt underserving of the Torah; she felt like a lowly rock that was nothing special. Because of this, Sinai merited that the Torah would be given on her, because Har Sinai was humble.

The Torah settles upon a place of humility, and we also know that Moshe Rabbeinu merited the Torah due to his humility.

Why is humility so important to receive the Torah? Why is the trait of humility in particular the trait which Torah settles upon?

Chazal say that Torah is not found amongst the haughty, but only amongst the humble ones. Isn’t that simple? Haughty people don’t really have Torah in the first place, so isn’t it obvious? But the deep understanding is as follows.

The Maharal explains that a baal gaavah (haughty person) can’t go everywhere, because there are many places that he feels beneath his dignity; but a humble person can go anywhere, because no place is beneath him to go to.

The depth of his words is that Torah is for everybody, all 600,000 souls of the Jewish people, and it is everywhere; it takes up all of Creation. (Of course, there are levels of souls. Each soul is different and thinks differently, as Chazal say. But in the general sense, Torah is for everybody). A haughty person is removed from Torah, because he is not ready to go anywhere for Torah – he doesn’t consider the Torah to be found everywhere, and thus he is removed from Torah.

Only a person who understands that Torah is everywhere can be ready to accept the Torah. A baal gaavah, due to his sense of pride for himself, does not view Torah as being everywhere, because he’s not ready to go anywhere for it.

By contrast, a humble person will go anywhere for Torah. He understands that Torah is everywhere. Thus, humility is to have endless aspirations when it comes to learning Torah. One who is haughty doesn’t have these aspirations, because he isn’t willing to go everywhere for the Torah.

We will explain more what this means.

Receiving An Endless Kind of Torah

The Ohr HaChaim wrote that Chazal (our holy Sages) were able to enact takkanos (announcements and restrictions) and Rabbinical mitzvos that were not given over at Sinai. They based their words on the Torah and expanded upon the Torah. Therefore, every novel Torah thought which ever came into the world was already told to Moshe at Har Sinai. (Thus, whenever we discover a novel Torah thought (a chiddush), it’s not really new knowledge, but rather a new angle of understanding in the words of our holy Chazal.)

Chazal say that what that when Hashem first created the world, He wanted to create it with “middas hadin” (the attribute of justice), but He saw that the world would not survive, so He included the “middas harachamim” (attribute of mercy) in Creation. The depth of this is that Hashem included rachamim, mercy, which represents our Chazal (our Sages), for our Chazal explained to us the Torah, which is a great form of mercy for us.

It is written, “For from Tziyon comes forth Torah, and the word of Hashem from Jerusalem.” The depth of this is that the whole concept of ‘Jerusalem’ is to continue and expand upon the Torah – the “middas harachamim”, which is beyond the “middas hadin” (attribute of justice).

The “middas harachamim” is really the inner layer of the “middas hadin”. It is synonymous with the term “lifnim mishuras hadin” (to go ‘beyond the letter of the law’) - it is the “inside” of “middas hadin”.

The Torah which has been given to us has in it both “middas hadin” and “middas harachamim”. The “middas hadin” in Torah is represented by our ameilus (exertion) in Torah, whereas the “middas harachamim” in Torah represents the endlessness of Hashem – the Ein Sof - that the Torah has no end. This is the inner layer of learning Torah – connecting to the endlessness of Torah.

If a person only has ameilus (exertion)in his Torah learning, he limits himself to the “middas hadin” of the Torah. The Torah he receives from Hashem will only be a ‘limited’ kind of understanding, just like “middas hadin” is limited.

But if a person’s attitude toward Torah is that it contains “middas harachamim” – when it reaches for the unlimited, just like “middas harachamim” is unlimited - the Torah he receives will be on the higher and unlimited level. This is because he attaches to the endless continuum of the middas harachamim of Hashem. and there is no end to the “middas harachamim” of Hashem, so he will receive unlimited Torah.

In other words, when a person learns Torah out of a desire for connection to Hashem, he strives to connect to the Endless, and such Torah learning is an endless kind of Torah that is connected to the “Ein Sof” (Endlessness) of Hashem. When a person learns Torah in this way, he will receive an ‘endless’ kind of Torah, a Torah tht is connected with the “Ein Sof” of Hashem.

To Have Aspirations For The Unlimited

But, in order to have this, a person must have “endless” aspirations - a person must have aspirations to overcome all the obstacles in the way of learning Torah.

There are two opposite abilities within us – an ability to be limited, to understand our limits, as well as an ability to be endless. We must know where our current level is; we must know our limits, and this is our ‘limited’ aspect. But we must also know to where we want to be headed towards; these are our aspirations, which is our ‘unlimited’ aspect.

If the aspirations of a person for spiritual progress are only limited aspirations, that means that a person doesn’t really want to have the endless connection to Hashem, because he is only limited in his aspirations. But if a person wants to have endless connection to Hashem, such a person is learning with real d’veykus (attachment) to Hashem.

A person shouldn’t have aspirations with the attitude that he is worthy for the Torah. We indeed were not worthy to receive the Torah; we were in the lowest levels if impurity, in the “49^th level of impurity” which we descended to in Egypt.

So the introspection to make is not about “Who am I that I should receive the Torah?” Rather, the attitude should be that a person is well aware of his limits and his shortcomings, but that he can still receive the Torah from Hashem - because Hashem is endless, and He can give endless illuminations upon a person.

Hashem can give us the Torah even if we aren’t worthy – as long as we believe, with our emunah, that He can always give us the Torah, no matter our situation.

Emunah – Believe That Hashem Can Give Us Anything We Aspire For

Our emunah is thus the tool that we need to receive any spiritual benefits.

Why must we believe in Moshiach? He’s coming anyway, so why do we have to hope he will come? It is because through emunah (belief), we have the tool to receive Hashem’s spiritual sustenance. With emunah, we can enable anything to happen.

We must believe that we can merit to have the Torah, even if we are at a lowly level. We must believe that Hashem can give it to us no matter where we are at. That is our emunah.

But without emunah, a person only receives Torah in a very limited way, because he remains with just his human mind, and the mind is indeed very limited; there can be no greater loss than this.

May we merit from Hashem to truly believe that Hashem wants to give us the Torah, and that He wants us to accept it through the depth of our hearts. Through this emunah, may we should merit to receive an endless kind of Torah – and thereby connect to Hashem, who is Endless.