Welcome to our series on humility. Yesterday we spoke about the concept of Rommemut HaNefesh/ an exalted uplifted soul. Today we'll continue with that topic, starting with a quote from Rabbenu Yonah in Shaare HaAvoda. It's worthwhile to read every word. He says, "The first opening of serving Hashem is that the person who's serving Hashem should know his value and realize his qualities, and the qualities of his forefathers; how great they were, how important they were, how dear they were to Hashem. And they should try and strengthen themselves constantly to keep themselves on that high level and to act on it constantly. And every day, continue to add strength to get even more qualities to connect to their Creator. It'll be slow at the beginning, but he will get even greater as time goes on."
And then he says, "This will cause him that when he has a desire to do something negative or he becomes arrogant and wants to do something improper, he'll be embarrassed of himself and of his forefathers and he'll tell himself, 'Somebody great and important like me, with is so many wonderful qualities…I'm the children of the greats of kings of old, how can I do such a thing like this?'"
And he quotes a term used by Yosef HaSadik, "איך אעשה הרעה הגדולה הזאת וחטאתי לאלקים/How could I do a sin like this and sin to God?" hinting to that's what saved Yosef. And the word that he uses in Hebrew is, I have qualities that are exalted…
And he says the opposite: If heaven forbid, you don't realize your qualities and qualities of forefathers, very easily you're going to go in the ways of the Pritzim/people that breach the proper ways.
He says The one that wants to serve Hashem has to constantly try to realize his qualities and the qualities of the Sadikim and Hasidim and how important and endearing they are to Hashem. He has to realize that he too can reach those levels of importance and endearment, as long as he serves Hashem the way they did and uses his time and abilities according to his strengths and talents. As the pasuk says in Devarim 30,14, כִּֽי־קָר֥וֹב אֵלֶ֛יךָ הַדָּבָ֖ר מְאֹ֑ד בְּפִ֥יךָ וּבִֽלְבָבְךָ֖ לַעֲשֹׂתֽוֹ /It's extremely close to you, in your mouth and your heart to do it which means Hashem is not asking you more than you can do. And our great forefathers Avraham Yitzhak and Yaakov served Him according to their abilities."
Unbelievable words of hizuk from Rabbenu Yonah, That the first step towards serving Hashem is realizing your hashivut/ importance. And again, that's not a contradiction to being humble.
On the other hand, Rav Chaim Vital in his sefer Shaare. Kedusha, section 2 gate 4 says almost the same words in contrast, that being down on yourself is the gate of the beginning of the seduction of the Yetzer Harah. Even if you're a sadik, the Yetzer Hara will come to you as a pious man and say, 'How could you even entertain coming close to the Holy King of the world, you piece of dust, worms and maggots?'These attitudes come from the original snake that interacted with Adam and Chava.
Last class we spoke about Amalek. Amalek is the evil force that tries to tell us, Rak Rah Kol HaYom/ You're only evil, all day. The pasuk in Yeshaya 14,29 says ךְ כִּֽי־מִשֹּׁ֤רֶשׁ נָחָשׁ֙ יֵ֣צֵא צֶ֔פַע וּפִרְי֖וֹ שָׂרָ֥ף מְעוֹפֵֽף׃ /From the root of the Nachash/snake will emerge a Sefa/viper. These are 2 different types of snakes. And our rabbis tell us that from the root of the snake (referring to the original snake, the sin of Adam HaRishon) will come out a viper- referring to Amalek.
The Chida says in Nachal Eshkol, his commentary on Kohelet 10,11, that the numerical value of צפע is 90 + 80 + 70 = 240, the same numerical value as עמלקAmalek. Amalek is that continuation, the embodiment of the snake. And that's why just like in the future it says the snake will be wiped out, so too, Amalek will be wiped out.
As we mentioned previously, the epitome of Amalek was Haman. And that's why the sefer Kehilat Yaakov, written by Rav Yaakov Tzvi Yalish (1777- 1825), one of the students of the Chozeh of Lublin tells us that Haman is Rasheh Tevot for
הוא משרש נחש . He comes from the root of the snake. The opposite is Mordechai HaSadik. Haman was there to bring down the exaltedness of the Jewish people and Mordechai brought it up by not bowing. The snake is told, in Bereshit 3:15
וְאֵיבָ֣ה ׀ אָשִׁ֗ית בֵּֽינְךָ֙ וּבֵ֣ין הָֽאִשָּׁ֔ה I will put hatred between you and the woman.
The word איבה spells is איש יהודי היה בשושן. Wonder of wonders, that we have this concept clearly brought out that it goes back to the snake who started all our problems. The snake tried to introduce the false Rommemut/ arrogance into man and he continues his mission with Amalek, and with Haman.
Let us again go a little deeper into our story: As the Jewish people are leaving Mitzrayim, they're going out ביד רמה with an uplifted hand, with Rommemut. Amalek can't stand that. Amalek can't swallow the fact that we're coming out with Rommemut. Amelek's numerical value 240 is רם as well. Every concept has a negative and positive. The Jewish people are the Rommemeut of Kedusha/ the holy aspect of exaltedness, whereas Amalek is the opposite. He's the contaminated aspect of exaltedness. He misuses this concept of Rommemeut. He's a fraud. He's Haman who makes it look like he's רם Ram/exalted, important. But it's fake, because he is dependent on the world to give him that importance. It's not inherent. He goes wild when he doesn't get his importance because he's not really internally great. He doesn't have internal qualities of greatness. The Elder of Kelm in Shemot, essay 253 tells us that true honor cannot be taken by anybody else. As it says in Mishleh 3,35
כָּ֭בוֹד חֲכָמִ֣ים יִנְחָ֑לוּ l
The wise inherit honor. Because they have wisdom, they have inherent greatness. If a person is always complaining and in pain because they don't get outside recognition and constantly feel chased by others, that is a sign that other people own his honor and they can give it or take it away from him. But not the Chachamim. They have inherent honor and no one can take it away from them. Look what Haman ended up saying. When one person, Mordechai, doesn't bow down to him, he says,
"כל זה איננו שוה לי This is all worthless to me." Of course, he can't show it, as it says, VeYitapek Haman. Haman holds himself back. He controls himself, but he knows, inside of him, how much it hurt.
The rabbis tell us, based on Gemara in Masechet Megila that Yaakov Avinu requested from Hashem,
"Don't let Esav HaRasha get his will." And that refers, it says to
גרממיא של אדם If Hashem would not have held them back, they would have destroyed the whole world.
Rav Yaakov Emden, hundreds of years before the Holocaust, says there's a mistake in the text- It shouldn't say גרממיא, it should say גרמניה, Germany. So the Gemara clearly says that Germany is this force that comes from Esav (as does Amelek) that could wipe out the world. The Germans mimic the fake concept of Rommemut as well. As we know, Hitler professed the Aryan race, his pseudoscientific superior race concept. Now that we have DNA and RNA, there's nothing to support this claim. It's what we called pseudoscience. But they believed that they were some special, superior specimen of humankind. They thought they were a master race and they believed that non-Aryans were racially inferior. The term that Hitler used was Untermentsch/subhuman, and he claimed they were an existential threat that had to be exterminated. That was the state ideology that led to the Holocaust. Blonde hair, blue eyes- a made-up, fake Rommemeut. There's nothing there. It's Pseudoscientific. Rav Wolbe writes in his sefer at the end of Parashat Beshalach where it talks about Amalek's attack, that the Jewish people have quality . That we have what's called Azut D'Kedusha. We have a strength of brazenness, of holiness. We don't give up. Like Mordechai, we aren't impacted by outside world opinion. That's why we're still here today. We're called Azin Sh'bUmot the most brazen of nations, and we wouldn't survive without that.
But Amalek has the Azut of Tum'ah. As it says, Every nation is in trembling, they were all impacted by the event of Keriat Yam Suf. And who was the one that said, I'm going to be brazen I don't care… That was Amalek. He's not impacted. He doesn't change from anything around him, from anything outside of him. He continues to do what he wants to do. That's the ultimate evil. As long as Amalek is around, Hashem's throne is not complete. He is the antithesis of a Hashem.
Shaul Hamelech was the first king to take on Amalek but he didn't do it. Why not? In Shmuel 1, perek 15:24, Shaul excuses himself and says חָטָ֔אתִי כִּֽי־עָבַ֥רְתִּי אֶת־פִּֽי־יְהֹוָ֖ה וְאֶת־דְּבָרֶ֑יךָ כִּ֤י יָרֵ֙אתִי֙ אֶת־הָעָ֔ם וָאֶשְׁמַ֖ע בְּקוֹלָֽם׃I sinned. I didn't listen to Hashem and to you. Because I was afraid of the people.
You were afraid of the people? That's a lack of Azut D'Kedusha. You can't take on Amalek, the Azut of Tum'ah unless you possess Azut D'Kedusha.
Lastly, we said there's difference between Ga'ava, which means you think you're great because you're above somebody, and Rommemut, which is inherent exaltedness.
We say Romemtanu Mikol Leshonot/God lift us up/exalted us, above all other tongues. But why do we have to be above all other tongues? It should be inherent, shouldn't it?
And the answer is, it is inherent. We are greater than all other tongues doesn't mean that we're just greater than all the nations. It means our language is greater, not by comparison, but it's inherently greater. The building blocks of creation were the 22 letters of the Alef Bet. Just like we have a periodical table elements, we have the 22 letters. They call water H2O, two hydrogen and one oxygen. But if you could look with spiritual glasses, you would see water is מים. Mem Yud Mem. That's the spiritual makeup of water, and that's why it's called the Mayim. When you call it water or agua or any other name, it's just a made up word to refer to it. It's not the inherent essence of the word. So the only language that is inherently exalted, because it's talking about the thing itself, is Lashon Hakodesh.
That's why we're not just being arrogant about our language, like, "My language is more poetic than yours." Or, "My language is richer than yours." No, it's inherently exalted. It's Rommamtanu M'kol Leshonot.
This concludes our lesson on the contrast between exaltedness and arrogance.