Shavua Tov Umevorach. Welcome and joining the hundreds of people, Baruch Hashem (Blessed is Hashem), we're watching this every day. Some reach a thousand, over a thousand viewers. We're grateful, Baruch Hashem, for putting our place with the grace of Hashem.
What I will tell you today: Eliyahu chose the topic of Anava. Anava: Borei Olam wants a person to be anav. That's it. The Gemara writes in Masechet Sotah (Tractate Sotah). Take a look at daf heh alef (page five, side one). All the derogatory things of a person who has ga'avah (pride). Kaf Vav (the Hebrew letters kaf and vav)—what does it mean to be anav? Anav in Hebrew is a quarter of gifter. That's what we're going to talk about today, because we're talking about Rav Moshe Feinstein's definition. Of gifter, right? Anav is a person who knows he's good. Of course, you have to know your qualities, and you have to acknowledge them. You know, but Allah gave you certain talents, right? He gave you, you know, all of your qualities. But knowing you're not the best, knowing you're not the best. No, there's someone better than you. Someone's better than you. And everything. A person thinks he's a great basketball player. “I'm great.” There's no such thing as a GOAT. You can't measure GOATs. There's always someone better than you in something, right? Something. Michael Jordan, they say, is the best, the best player. Yeah, but did he have the most assists? No. There are better people who have more assists than him. People have more rebounds than him. People have more of all of these things. There's no such thing as the best in everything. And therefore, a person has to realize: I know, I know, I acknowledge that I'm not the best. Whatever, I'm good. I'm very good. But there's always someone better.
Now, I'm going to give you today a little bit of a strategy for how a person can retain his anava. Listen very carefully. Let's say you had a guy who's a great doctor. Great doctor, great doctor. He's a great doctor. He walks around thinking, “I'm great. I'm the best.” That ga'avah, that pride, seems to take a hit the moment he has a problem with the plumbing in his house. Once a guy has this doctor—Mr. Doctor in university, med school, with everything—right? You can't unclog a toilet. When the guy can't unclog a toilet, now he has to call a plumber to his house. Now it takes a hit to this ga'avah, realizing that you can't do everything, you can't do everything. And the bed, the biggest wizard—the guy is the biggest computer scientist. That is a great thing, right? The guy has the flu; he doesn't know what he has. As smart as you are in computer science, you have to go to a doctor, and that's the way it is. A guy has to go to doctors for different things. A person has a problem with his car; you have to go to a mechanic. It doesn't matter how strong you are; a muscle bodybuilder has no idea how to fix a car. That's not what it means when the transmission makes certain noises. That's the way it is.
A person has to realize that Borei Olam made it on purpose so that you don't have one guy, a one-man band in life. You can, maybe you can have it in music, right? But you can't have it in life. Borei Olam made it so that you need other people. You need other people. Why? To retain anava. That's it. You have your anava. No, I'm not the best. There's only one who is Hakol Yachol (can do everything). There's only one. That's only Borei Olam. Only Borei Olam, everybody, right? Borei Olam is with all the... That's it. But only Borei Olam; everybody else has, everyone else has inadequacies. Everybody, as perfect as you think you are, nobody can do everything. He's the only one who can do everything.
It's something to acknowledge when I start feeling a little bit too haughty. I'm not saying don't acknowledge that you're great. Everyone's great. When you start to feel a little bit of an edge and you want to go down, just take a look at the things you can't do. I don't know if I can. I know there are many, many things I can't do. I think I'm a good guy. There are a lot of things you can't do, right? By doing that, you'll remain anava. And when a person has is with you, and when he's with you, that's when the Berachot (blessings) come. We should have Berachot as part of our life. Always retain the—remember that by doing that, we will see and experience a rain, a downpour.