Yesterday we spoke about the concept that one who is arrogant is like a worshiped tree and is chopped down.
The Ben Ish Hai, in his commentary on Sotah 5A says something fascinating. It’s little deep so we'll call it extra credit, but I just could not control myself because it's so beautiful. He starts by with telling us that the word ישראל Yisrael/ the Jewish people, starts with a Yud, the smallest letter of the alphabet, and ends with a ל lamed, which is the tallest and highest letter of the alphabet, to symbolize that in the end of time, the Jewish people will be above all the nations of the earth (just like the Lamed is the highest of all letters) whereas now we are a simple, small little Yud ( A Jew is called Yehudi, based on the letter Yud).
Then Ben Ish Chai says something fascinating. If we were to make a Lamed ל out of three toothpicks, we’d have an upside down L for the bottom, and the top piece.
The Ben Ish Chai says that when a person becomes arrogant, it’s like he says, “Ooh, I'm the tall lamed, and, as we’ve learned, God puts down those that are high. So He takes the ל lamed and cracks off the top (picture the top toothpick removed). Now it’s an upside down L, which looks like a little ד daled, and the piece that was cracked off the top of the Lamed gets put on the bottom so the Lamed ל becomes a ה
Now, instead of having the letters Yisrael ישראל , we have a Yud, a Sin, a Resh, an Alef and a Heh (instead of the Lamed). Rescramble that and it spells Ashera, אשרה, which is the worshiped tree that we spoke about yesterday, meaning that when somebody is a Yisrael, a Jewish person, he's uplifted from the small little letter Yud until he becomes the big tall Lamed. But if he is arrogant, then God pushes him down.
He adds that the numerical value of the Lamed is 30. But God says, Ani Et Daka/ I dwell with the דכא Daka /humble person.”
(You could be a Lamed and still be a humble person).
The numerical value of the word דכה Daka/humility is 25 (Daled-4, alef-1,and kaf-20. That's 25).
So if you take daka, humility, which is 25, and subtract it from the Lamed/30, you're left with a Heh. That's why this man, who lost his humility when he was uplifted as a Lamed, now comes down to a ה Heh, and he spells the word אשרה Ashera.
This is a fascinating glimpse into the letters of the Hebrew language- there's so much depth and so much beauty. The word, Yisrael tells us, “Start off small.
Yisrael means Sar/a great one, a minister, Sarita/ someone that won over the struggle with the angels. It’s the highest level of Yisrael.
But with all that you reach, you have to always keep the humility. If your lamed starts getting a little too arrogant, he gets chopped down and turned into that worshiped tree.
It's fascinating to see how these beautiful lessons are hiding in the Hebrew language!
That's our mystical, kabbalistic message for today, from the Ben Ish Chai. One of the rabbis tell us that there's nothing more humbling than seeing the depth of the Torah and how great our greats are. They remain humble with all their great, beautiful Divrei Torah. Have a wonderful day.