We've been talking about arrogance and humility and how it relates to Bitachon. There's a Gemara in Sotah 5A that says,
כׇּל אָדָם שֶׁיֵּשׁ בּוֹ גַּסּוּת הָרוּחַ, אָמַר הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא: אֵין אֲנִי וָהוּא יְכוֹלִין לָדוּר בָּעוֹלָם
“Anyone who is arrogant, God says there's no room for Me and him in the same world…”
The Gemara quotes pasuk from Tehilim, where God says about the arrogant man,
אֹתוֹ לֹא אוּכָל
I can't stand him.
I can't handle him. I can't be in the room with him.
How are we to understand this? The sefer Zichru Torah Moshe, from the author of the Chayeh Adam, a famous book of old, explains the phrase, ‘There's no room for God in this world.’ He says that the truth is, God really, seemingly, philosophically, doesn't belong in this world. As the pasuk says, God is high and lofty for the goyim.
The claim of the idol worshipers of old was that God doesn't deal with such small things like little people, like us down here.
It’s true that we are very little people down here, to the extent that Rav Chaim Volozhin says that when we say Shema, Yisrael, Hashem Elokenu, Hashem Echad,
God is our King, it’s the equivalent of a man who walks onto a mosquito farm and a bunch of mosquitoes start singing his praises. That's what it is to God. God doesn't need us. So why does God deal with us? Why is God listening to us? Why is God priding Himself in us? The answer is one word: Humility. God is the most humble. God is humble in dealing with us, and that's something that the goyim of old could not understand. God is tremendously kind and tremendously humble, and He goes down to the lowest of people.
But, the arrogant man’s philosophy is, “I only hang with the rich and famous. I only hang with the high and lofty. I don't spend time with simple people.” And so, according to his philosophy, there really is no room for God in this world. Therefore, the arrogant man really is saying, “God, You don't belong here. Because, based on my belief, there's no room for You here.” So, Middah k’neged Middah, He's sending God away because according to his opinion, why would God be down here?
But the humble man, who acknowledges that we're low and simple and is not arrogant, and himself deals with people that are lower than him, he allows for opening the place for God to come and deal with him as well, measure for measure.
The sefer Pardes Yosef cites a story from a Hasidic Rebbi called Rav Heschel of Epta. He once came to a certain city, and there were two people that wanted to host him. Both of them were wealthy men with beautiful homes. One of them was a Torah scholar, but he was arrogant. The other one was an ignorant man that wasn't so careful with all the mitzvot, and the Rebbi chose to stay in the home of the ignorant man who wasn't careful of all the mitzvot.
When his hasidim asked him why, he said, “I want to follow God. And what does God say? God says about a sinner, “I can dwell amongst them even though they're contaminated.” God dwells amongst the sinners. But what does God say about arrogant people? “I can't dwell with an arrogant person,” so therefore, this Rebbe said, “I want to act like God. I will bring myself amongst people that are contaminated, but a person that's arrogant, I can't dwell with him.” That’s how severe this concept of arrogance is. It’s concept that we have to constantly remind ourselves of, and work on. Have a wonderful day.