Proud Humility
Humility is a virtue. Pride is a vice. Proud humility is perfection. BECHUKOSAI BECHUKOSAI
The Unique Mountain
Sinai is the name of a mountain. Not just any mountain, but the one G-d had selected for giving the Torah to the Jewish people. And it is with this mountain that this week’s Torah portion commences.
The portion introduces the laws concerning the Sabbatical year in Israel by stating that “G-d spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai.” In this introduction to the Sabbatical year, the Torah gives us a rather detailed description of the laws concerning this year.
From the manner in which the Torah emphasizes that these laws were given on Sinai, Rashi, the principle Bible commentator, concludes that all of the Torah’s precepts – just like the laws of the Sabbatical year – were given, in vivid detail, on Mount Sinai.
BECHUKOSAI
What was so unique about this mountain upon which G-d chose to give every last detail of the laws of the Torah?
The Midrash explains that Sinai was the lowest of all the mountains in the region. This teaches us the value of humility and how it is indispensable for the study of Torah.
The Angel is in the Details
The question can be raised: To teach us humility, it would have sufficed for G-d to have transmitted the general commandment. Why did He have to impart all the details, as well, on the same mountain? Couldn’t He have waited to teach Moses all the details?
The answer lies in the way we approach the Torah and its multifaceted commandments.
An arrogant person feels uncomfortable about accepting any law that denies this individual his or her freedom to do whatever he or she pleases. It takes a measure of humility to accept someone else’s authority.
There is yet another type of individual, who can accept a Mitzvah, even though it entails BECHUKOSAI acceding to someone else’s will, provided that he or she can tailor the mitzvah to his or her own liking. When one does so, the effect is that it is no longer the same mitzvah, but has become the individual’s own preference. Thus, even the egotist – the antithesis of Sinai – can accept a Mitzvah; provided he or she can perform the mitzvah the way he or she likes to perform it.
The Torah, therefore, underscores in this week’s parsha, that even the most minute details of a commandment must come from G-d. When it comes to a mitzvah we have no right to dictate the terms of the Mitzvah. All of it comes from G-d’s revelation on Mount Sinai.
And only a truly humble person can accept the fact, that he or she is required to engage in a lifestyle that conforms to a higher will – in all of its details.
Why Not a Valley?
There is still one more question that can be asked. If G-d chose Mount Sinai to impress upon us the importance of humility in BECHUKOSAI accepting the Torah, He should have given it in a valley?
The answer to this question is that Judaism, paradoxically, demands total surrender of our egos to G-d in the acceptance of every facet of every Mitzvah as well as bringing the totality of our personality into every Mitzvah.
G-d wants us to invest our feelings and our understanding in His commandments. He wants the Commandment to permeate our entire being.
The mountain symbolizes that the stature of every person which is not eliminated, humility notwithstanding. Rather, we accept the Torah within the confines of our personalities; not – G-d forbid – by altering the Torah to suit our tastes, but by making the Torah have such and effect on us, that it becomes our taste and personality.
Moshiach’s Twin Virtue
Moshiach is described as a person who achieves the highest and deepest level of humility. This is alluded to in the Biblical BECHUKOSAI description of Moshiach as a “poor man riding on a donkey.”
Yet, Moshiach is a king, an absolute monarch, who will rule over the entire world, as stated in the Torah. And as a king he will be accorded the highest honor.
How can he be both the paragon of the virtue of humility and simultaneously a powerful monarch?
The answer lies in the giving of the Torah ta Mount Sinai, which, as stated, was the lowest mountain, but still a mountain.
A Sinai personality, such as Moses and Moshiach is so devoted to G-d that he becomes a transparent conduit for G-d. Whatever power this personality possesses he does not ascribe to himself. He is acutely aware of and sensitive to the role that G-d plays in his life. The honor is not his and the sense of greatness is not his own.
As we prepare for the giving of the Torah in the Festival of Shavuos, and as we are preparing for the Final Redemption through Moshiach, we must endeavor to reveal our BECHUKOSAI G-dly essence. Doing so will reveal our humble pride.
BECHUKOSAI
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Behar-Bechukosai by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
