I would like to share two thoughts on Parashat Naso,
both of which relate to Ga’avah/arrogance, which, s
we’ve been discussing, relates to Bitachon.
The Parasha starts off with the words:
נָשֹׂ֗א אֶת־רֹ֛אשׁ בְּנֵ֥י גֵרְשׁ֖וֹן גַּם־הֵ֑ם לְבֵ֥ית
אֲבֹתָ֖ם לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָֽם׃
Lift up the heads of the children of Gershon, also
them, to their households, to their families.
Simply, this means Levi had three children, Gershon, Kehat and Merari,
and Merari is counted second. So we say, “Lift up Gershon, also them.” Also them means not
just Kehat but Bnei Gershon as well.
But the sefer Binah Leltim has a novel way of reading this, which is that
‘You want to lift up the Bnei Gershon because of their
family and their lineage, but Gam Hem/ they have to lift themselves up as well.’
It's not enough to say, “I come from a special
family and therefore I can rest on the laurels of my family without doing
anything myself.” It’s really a Ga’avah issue.
He says that one of the reasons for Ga’avah is
that a person says, “No one's more important than I am. Look who my family is. Look how hashuv/important I am.” That's a mistake, because ultimately, it's up
to you to do your work. Yechus/lineage is a Ga’avah pill. It’s really
nothing to be proud of, because what did you do? It’s one thing if you
accomplish on your own- you can maybe look at that as if you did something, but
your family?
Did you choose your family, that now you're so
important? Because of who your grandfather is, that makes you important? As if
the other guy chose a simpleton for his grandfather and your grandfather is
someone special …
That's one lesson we can take from this Parasha-Don’t bloat
yourself based on your lineage. You have
to lift yourself up as well.
The second lesson is from the Nazir. He commits to
abstain from wine, haircuts and
contamination from the dead for 30 days. But in middle of his 30 days, suddenly,
without his planning, he mistakenly becomes contaminated from the dead.
Now he has to start again, and he has to bring a Korban
Hatat/a sin offering. Why does he have to bring a sin offering? Because he
pained himself for being a Nazir. The question asked is, he pained himself for
being a Nazir whether he became contaminated or not. Every Nazir inherently
pains himself. So why is this man
called the sinner? The Emek Davar
answers that the fact that he became
contaminated means he took upon himself a level that he wasn't fit for.
He went too far, and that's why God contaminated him.
It’s like Hashem was saying, “You know what? You're not ready to be a Nazir.
You must bring a sin offering.”
This is another important principle related to
Ga’avah- people sometimes take on levels that are above them. The Gemara uses the term Nechsi KiyuHara /sometimes
it looks like you're showing off. Sometimes
you do things that are not befitting. For example, you're in a synagogue and
you decide to put on two pairs of tefilin- but no one else is doing that.
That might be something you have to ask the rabbi of
the shul about; Is it befitting? If the rabbi's not doing it and you are, it
might look a bit arrogant.
It's when people do things that are not on their
level, even though they're good things to do.
The Hovot Halevavot in Shaar Ahavat Hashem (chapter 7) says that
when a person makes any growth, it has to be slow. Don't go to extremes too
fast. He uses an interesting analogy. He says, too much oil in the candelabra
causes the light to go out. Too much oil
is no good. It’s the same with serving Hashem. The Gaon of Vilna says, in his sefer Even
Shlomo, that sometimes a person accepts something upon himself and then
he backtracks because it’s too hard. BThen he blames God, thinking, “Why didn’t You
help me? I was trying to be good.”
And the answer is, it's not God's fault, it's your
fault because you tried to jump without walking first. Rav Chaim Volozhin says,
in his sefer Ruach Chaim, that when a king asks his servant to walk up a flight
of stairs, he doesn't expect him to jump 10 steps at a time. He expects him to walk one step at a time. What's
pushing him to do more than he's supposed to do? Sometimes he’s driven by
arrogance.
So that's our second lesson.
To review-
1-Arrogance can cause you to
rest on your laurels and do
nothing, Or
2-Arrogance can cause you to say, “I’m deserving to do more,” and you do too much.
The Mesilat Yesharim says that what's interesting about
arrogance is that it is manifested in different ways. One way that arrogance can manifest itself in person sitting in the last row of the
synagogue saying, “I'm so humble.” He could be acting humble as a sign of
arrogance!
So arrogance is something that we have to be careful of.
It can show up in doing too much, or it can show up in doing too little.
It’s a life's work to constantly realize that you
are not doing things, Hashem is doing things, and put the arrogance on the
side.
Have a wonderful day.
