We’ve been talking about the connection between Emunah, Bitachon, arrogance and humility.
And if I really believed, I would believe that I'm not preparing any of these classes, that it’s all coming directly from Hashem. Sometimes you can see it more clearly. This week, two different Divrei Torah that I gave in the Torah Center, one, Friday night and another from a class that I give on En Yaakov, came together to provide a beautiful thought.
The first one was based on this week's Parasha.
Moshe Rabbenu was spoken about by his sister Miriam, to his brother Aharon, about how Moshe separated from his wife. Yes, he was a prophet, “But we’re also prophets,” she said. “And if we can be married, why can't he be married?” That was their claim. What they didn't know was that Moshe Rabbenu was on a higher level of prophecy than they were.
When the Torah tells us this story, it happens to throw in that, “Moshe was the most humble of men.” Why is that necessary to the story? There are four reasons that we won’t discuss today (maybe for tomorrow's class). But Rav Chaim Feinstein explains, based on Rav Chaim of Volozhin’s sefer Ruach Chaim ( on Pirkei Avot), that the reason Moshe Rabbenu reached such a high level of prophecy was only because he was the most humble of men. Because Moshe Rabbenu was so humble, he was the perfect conduit for God's voice to speak out of his mouth. It says the Shechina spoke out of his throat. There was no separation, because Moshe was so humble. God spoke directly through him, in the highest level of prophecy. Other prophets have some of themselves mixed into the prophecy. Only Moshe Rabbenu was able to say, Ko Amar Hashem/ this is exactly what Hashem said, and that only came because of his humility.
So, the highest level of prophecy, and the purest level of prophecy, comes from humility.
That is what we learned in our Friday night class. Then, Shabbat morning, in the En Yaakov class, lo and behold, the Gemara in Masechet Shabbat says that when the arrogant ones will cease, the forces of Kishuf/, the forces of black magic will cease. And the commentaries in the En Yaakov tell us that the power of the contamination of black magic comes from arrogance. That's what feeds black magic.
An arrogant man is a good black-magician. Who was the greatest Mechashef of all times? Bilaam. The Mishna in Pirkei Avot says of Bilaam, that he was the most arrogant of men. He was the man with the Ruach Gevoha.
What an unbelievable concept. We have two great prophets. One, the prophet of the Jews, one the prophet of the Goyim, and each one is the exact antithesis of the other. Moshe was the humblest of men and the greatest pure prophet, while Bilaam was the most arrogant of men and the greatest Mechashef/ the greatest man of black magic. That on its own is interesting point, but I want to go a little further and connect it to Bitachon.
The Gemara, in Masechet Chulin, says there was a great rabbi, Rav Chanina Ben Dosa, and a witch, using black magic, was trying to impact him. But Rav Chanina Ben Dosa told her, “Don’t even try. En Od Milevado/There is no one else but God.”
Rav Chaim Volozhin, in his sefer Nefesh HaChaim, explains that the force against black magic is the belief in, There’s nothing else but Him.
And now, let's connect the pieces: When a person says, “En Od Milevado/There's nothing else but God,” it doesn’t just mean there's nothing else in creation but God, it means that everything happens because of God. En Od Milevado is a statement of total subservience to God's will and God's existence; we don't exist at all. Tohat's why it’s the power that annuls all negative decrees. There is no black magic. What is black magic? Black magic is the forces of super nature that, as if to say, go against God. That Gemara in Chulin 7b says that the word Kishuf is a the is a contraction of the words,
“They contradict God's decisions,” because in as much as person doesn't have full faith in God, there's room for other forces. Of course, God decides everything.
But as the Hovot Halevavot says, the more you believe, the more you give your life over to God's control. The less you believe, the more you give the control over to others.
So, En Od Milevado means there's nothing else but God. But it also says, “I'm humble because I don't do anything.” Who is the One that revealed En Od Milevado to the world? Moshe Rabbenu.
To recap, a man who is arrogant is feeding the negative forces, the forces of Tum’ah, of black magic, forces in the world other than God.
And when a person has humility, he's feeding the forces of En Od Milevado/There's nothing else but God. That's why Moshe Rabbenu, who was the most humble of men, makes all the miracles. He split the sea, he has all those forces. That's the power of humility, that's the power of En Od Milevado.
That's why they go hand in hand. And that's why we keep on stressing that if you want to know if you're a real Baal Bitachon, see whether you are a real Anav. You can say En Od Milevado/there's nothing else but Him, but the way you know that it has really permeated your being is if it shows up as humility. And even the greatest can make a mistake and think they are so humble. Miriam and Aharon thought they were as humble as Moshe. But the
Nefesh HaChaim says o that was their mistake. They didn't realize they weren't quite on his level.
So, we all have work to do, inculcating into ourselves these important lessons of Bitachon and Anava.
Have a wonderful day.