We’ve been discussing the connection between humility and bitachon. There is a Gemara in Masechet Sotah (daf ה) that says, ‘Any man that has arrogance, he's going to become diminished.’
And they quote a pasuk from Iyov: “It's going to be plucked like the head of the kernel (of wheat).”
There are two explanations for this. One says that a wheat-stalk has a little hair-like piece on top, that falls off first because it’s extra. Anything extra is unnecessary and gets blown off. The Maharal explains this concept of the extras getting removed in his sefer Netivot HaOlam (in the chapter on Anava), with a very interesting analogy.
He says, when it comes to the laws of Terefot (certain types of defects that render an animal unkosher because it won’t live out the year), the most common one is a hole in the lungs, and that's why we have to check the lungs. If an animal is missing a liver or gallbladder, it's a terefah. The Gemara has a hiddush. But when an animal has two livers or four kidneys, that’s also a terefah, due to the principle that anything that's extra, it’s as if it’s been removed.
The Maharal says this concept is true not only for our physical makeup, but for our spiritual and our emotional makeup as well. A person who is arrogant is really adding on to his emotional self, to his psyche, parts of his personality that don't belong. He is making himself bigger than he really is. We can even borrow the term grandiose. He's adding to what he really is, and that addition actually causes him to to be lacking.
We can apply this concept to something called hero syndrome, also known as hero complex or savior complex. It's a psychological disorder, which is basically a need to help somebody, to such an extent that the person starts seeking heroism or recognition by creating harmful situations for objects or people, which they can then resolve. This happens quite often to people who were once true heroes. A man did something great and was on the news for a day or two, but now he has an exaggerated sense of self-worth. That extra is now causing him to be lacking. He has that need for recognition and heroism, and now he's lacking that.
So his yeter/his extra, is actually causing him to lack.
This is based on the first explanation that a Baal Ga’ava is like the hair on top of the wheat.
Another explanation is that it's talking about a tall stalk of wheat. The Gemara says it's comparable to when a man walks into his field. Which piece of wheat does he pluck first? The highest piece. And again, we quote from the Maharal, in his sefer Netivot HaOlam, where discusses humility, and says a fascinating concept: When a person considers himself elite or greater-than, that separates him from everybody else and therefore, he's plucked first.
That means that when it comes to God's judgment, being arrogant separates a person from everybody else. This is an important point, that you may have heard in the past about the high holiday season: a person shouldn't separate himself from the group. Like the famous Shunamite woman who was asked on Rosh Hashanah, by Eliyahu HaNavi, “What can I do for you?” Her answer was, “I want to be with everybody else, a part of my people, I don't want to stand out.” Standing out is not a good thing. We could call it Ayin Hara, but the Maharal explains it slightly differently. He says it's about the person becoming arrogant. When he becomes arrogant, that in itself separates him from everybody else, and he becomes zeroed-in on and focused on, because he's lifting himself up as if he's better-than. That better-than arouses God's judgment.
Our takeaway from all these things is that the opposite is true. When a person is humble, he's part of the group, he's part of the tzibbur, he has the proper equilibrium, he has a reality check. He knows who he is. He's not adding and he's not grandiose. These are the qualities necessary to be an emotionally healthy human being, and also to be someone that God brings blessing upon.
Have a wonderful day.