Welcome to our series on Anava. All of our good Middot come from emulating Hashem. In Bereshit 1:26 before man is even there, Hashem says, וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים
נַעֲשֶׂה אָדָם בְּצַלְמֵנוּ כִּדְמוּתֵנוּ/Let us make man in our image. Rashi tells us, we learn from here the humility of Hashem. When it came to the time to make man, which would be in an image similar to angels, they might be jealous of him. So He first asked them their opinion.
Imagine you have a company and you want to bring on a new employee, but you're afraid that the existing employees might feel some competition, so you bring them into the decision.
So too, Hashem so to say, says, I want to bring the angels in.
Rashi continues, He said, Na'aseh Adam/Let us make man. Even though, of course, they didn't help with the creation. So it's possible for a heretic to say, "Oh, look at that. There's more than one force here."
But the Torah says, לא נמנע הכתוב מללמד דרך ארץ No says, I'm not going to hold back from teaching you a good Middah - Middat Anava.
שיהא הגדול נמלך ונוטל רשות מן הקטן I have to teach you the lesson. And if I write, E'esah Adam/I will make man, we won't learn that lesson. And therefore we'll take the risk of saying Na'aseh Adam, even though it could bring one to heresy.
The Midrash Raba on Bereshit 8:8 adds that when Moshe Rabbenu was writing the Torah, he asked Hashem, "Why are you giving the heretics an opening here?
And Hashem said,
כתוב והרוצה לטעות יטעה /You write, and the one that wants to make a mistake, will make the mistake.
Hashem continues and tells Moshe, This man that I create, They'll be big people and small people. And the big people might think, "I don't have to ask any permission or advice from small people." But you'll be able to say "No, learn from your Creator. He created the world and He still advised with the angels." The Elder of Slobodka, in his sefer Or HaTzafon on Bereshit adds a beautiful thought. There is a big risk here that person may have a wrong hashkafa. They may think there were two creators. But what's the other option? Not to teach the Derech Eretz of Anava? Then we'll have a mistake in proper Middot, and a mistake in understanding Hashem and how He acts. And therefore it seems that it's better to make this mistake than the other. We don't want to take the chance. Its unbelievable- look how important Anava is, that Hashem took that risk, so to say, to give us that lesson.
The Sefer Parashat Derachim, from the same author as the Mishneh LeMelech, in his 16th derush, says a fascinating concept. Why is it that it says somebody who is arrogant is like he's worshiping idols? Because when you look at the words Na'aseh Adam, with a humility lens, you understand that Hashem is being humble. Of course He created the world, but He's being humble and advising with the angels. That's if you are a humble person. If you're a humble person, you see the pasuk teaching a lesson in humility. But if a person is arrogant, with his arrogant glasses, he can't see that God would ever seek advice. Of course not. So he'll think, "It must be that be here are two forces." So his arrogant lens causes him to misunderstand the pasuk and therefore he's going to be an idol worshiper, because he's going to say there are two forces. God alone didn't do it.
This is one of the important ways, says Rav Wolbe (Aleh Shor vol 2 pg 312) to work on becoming humble- advise with people younger than you or lesser than you. He says Rav Yerucham Levovitz gave this idea and did it himself as well. He used to do this to ask advice from others.
He tells a story that one of the younger students went to Rav Yerucham with a message from his father, and Rav Yerucham asked the boy, "What's the weather outside?" The boy said, "There's a very strong wind blowing." Rav Yerucham said, "I have a bit of cold. What do you think? Should I go to yeshiva for Mincha or stay home?" The boy hought for a minute and answered, "I think you should stay home."
Rav Yerucham replied, "I think you're right. I'm going to listen to you." Unbelievable! He was doing that to work on his Anava. He actually listened to him in a case where it meant staying home. There's a similar story that I heard Rabbi Ades tell over about Rav Shach. When Rav Shach was sitting Shiva for his wife, it was during that he had to give his shiur. There's a question, if a giving a public class overrides mourning and there's a Halacic question about whether one should go to give shiur during shiva. Rabbi Ades was one of Rav Shach's students, and when he came to pay respects, Rav Shach asked "What do you think I should do? Do you think I should go and give the shiur? If I do, people might make a mistake and think I'm being lenient on the laws of Avelut. They may not understand that I'm really being stringent on the laws of Talmud Torah/teaching Torah."
Rabbi Ades thought about it for a minute and said, "I think that people won't understand, so I think it's better if the Rosh Yeshiva stays home." And he did. Wonder of wonders. Rav Shach was asking Rav Ades for advice? Of course he didn't need Rav Ades' advice, but this was the way of the Gedolim- to always ask advice. That was a way of them working on the humility.
There's a story told over on this pasuk Na'aseh Adam in the sefer Lulei Toratecha- stories on of Rav Shach, on the pesukim. Once when Rav Shach was going to speak at a major event in Yad Eliyahu with thousands of people in attemdance, he asked a student, "What do you think I should speak about?
The student suggested he speak about Emunah and the negativity of arguments. Rav Shach said, "Good, good. I like the idea." So Rav Shach went gave a major speech. I still remember it. He spoke about the creation and it was a major, major speech on Emunah. But he ended up not speaking about the second topic. When he came back afterwards, he met this young man and said, "I have to make an apology. I didn't listen to your advice. I couldn't because I thought I was the only speaker but it turned out that there was another speaker, so I didn't want to speak too long and tire out the crowd. But I think it was okay because Rabbi Elyashiv said that I spoke pretty well."
Look at his humility! He shared with the student that Rav Elyashiv gave him a compliment, so he wouldn't feel bad that the speech didn't go well.
We need to work on these things. This is practical advice - asking people less than you, even though you don't need them. These are maasim/ actions that will help you become humble. And like we said, it's our responsibility to do what we can to become humble.