Moshe Rabbeinu Looked at Our Generation and Was Filled with Humility - What Did He See?

00:00 Let’s talk today about humility. What is proper humility—healthy humility? There’s quite a bit of confusion about these terms. People mix up humility, lowliness, and lowliness of spirit, treating them as one and the same, but they’re actually different things. What is healthy humility? When we look at the weekly parsha, Parshas Behaaloscha, we see Moshe Rabbeinu speaking about himself and writing in the parsha: “And the man Moshe was exceedingly humble, more than any person on the face of the earth.” At first, that sounds a little jarring. What does it mean? A person says about himself, praises himself: “I’m humble.” “And the man Moshe was exceedingly humble, more than any person on the face of the earth.” The moment you seem to be praising your own virtue and saying “I’m humble,” that itself is a form of pride. So where’s the humility here? But the truth is, this question comes from a mistaken understanding of what humility really means. People tend to confuse two terms: humility and lowliness. There’s a person who has what’s called lowliness, lowliness of spirit—a person who genuinely feels that he’s nothing, that he’s worthless, that he has no value. Now, generally speaking, this is not a good trait. It makes a person lose heart, feel inferior to others, sometimes to the point that he feels like a doormat and so on. When the Torah speaks about humility, it means just the opposite. A humble person definitely knows himself. He knows his strengths, he knows the special abilities he has, and he knows the special things he does. He knows himself and his deeds; he knows exactly what he’s worth. But even so, he is humble. In other words, he isn’t proud. He has no reason to feel superior to anyone

02:21 else because of all his accomplishments, abilities, and wonderful qualities. Why? Because a humble person knows that all the special qualities and abilities he has aren’t really his. He received them. They’re a gift from Heaven. Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave them to me. Sometimes they come through the merit of one’s ancestors: he had righteous parents and grandparents, and through their merit he became who he is, and so on. There can be all sorts of reasons why he has a particular trait or behaves a particular way. He certainly doesn’t think he has reason to be proud in comparison with someone else, or to consider himself better than anyone else because of these things, because all of it is a gift from Heaven. I have no reason to take pride in it. What’s more, a humble person thinks to himself: If someone else—anyone at all—had my abilities, my talents, and the circumstances I have, he would do a much better job than I do. He would accomplish much more and reach a higher level. So all of this allows a person to know himself, recognize his own strengths, and still not feel proud of them—to be humble. That is one of the main points of humility, healthy humility: knowing your own worth without feeling superior to someone else, without looking down your nose at another person, without thinking you’re better than he is.

04:15 Because once I know that everything I have was given to me by Hakadosh Boruch Hu, or came through the merit of my ancestors, and that if someone else had these talents and strengths, he would make much better use of them than I do—what do I have to be proud of? And that was Moshe Rabbeinu’s humility. Of course Moshe Rabbeinu knew about all the exceptional things he had. Moshe Rabbeinu knew that when he was born, the entire house filled with light. He knew that Hakadosh Boruch Hu had chosen him from among all the Jewish people to be the redeemer, and he knew about all the special abilities he had. He knew himself. And yet he had not a trace, not the slightest drop, of pride, because he knew that if someone else had all these things, that person would do a better job. He knew that everything he had was a gift from Heaven or came through the merit of his ancestors. He was the son of Amram, the son of Kehos, the son of Levi, and so on. He had that distinguished lineage. So he understood that everything he had consisted of strengths given to him from Above, and that if someone else had those strengths, he would do much more than I do. This was so clear to him that he could look every person in the eye, as an equal. Our Sages say, “And the man Moshe was exceedingly humble, more than any person on the face of the earth.” The sefarim ask: What exactly does the expression “any person on the face of the earth” mean? What is it telling us? There are two explanations here. I want to tell you two wonderful explanations, both of which offer each and every one of us a lesson in serving Hashem. One explanation is from the Alter Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe asks: What does “any person on the face of the earth” mean? It means that Moshe Rabbeinu was humble not only in relation to another Jew, but even in relation to

06:14 a non-Jew, to someone from the nations of the world. Moshe Rabbeinu’s humility was so great that he thought this way about each and every person—even a person at the very lowest level, a person “on the face of the earth.” Moshe Rabbeinu felt humble even in relation to him. Why? For the reason we explained earlier. Moshe Rabbeinu would look at each person and say: If this person had received from Hakadosh Boruch Hu all the gifts that I received, he would do a much better job. And that itself led him to respect everyone and really see every person. The Alter Rebbe says that he would even look at a non-Jew with respect and treat him respectfully, because he saw that this person, too, could do a better job than he could. That is the Alter Rebbe’s explanation. In one of his maamarim, the Rebbe Rashab explains what “any person on the face of the earth” means. He gives a wonderful explanation. He says that the Midrash relates that Hakadosh Boruch Hu showed Moshe Rabbeinu all the generations. He showed him each generation and its sages, each generation and its teachers. When Moshe Rabbeinu went up Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, Hashem showed him all the generations. He showed him what would happen in every generation, until he reached the last generation as well. At the end of the Torah, too, the Torah tells us that Hakadosh Boruch Hu showed Moshe Rabbeinu up to the last day. Rashi says “up to the last day” means everything that will happen until the coming of Moshiach Tzidkeinu. So Moshe Rabbeinu sees, contemplates, and looks at all the generations, until he comes to “the person on the face of the earth.” He reaches the end of all the generations, “the person on the face of the earth,”

08:14 our generations, our time, ikvesa deMeshicha—the period leading up to Moshiach’s coming. He reaches a low point, times when the Jewish people are at the very lowest level, in the deep, doubled darkness of thousands of years of exile. And it’s precisely this period that he looks at. What does he see? He sees Jews living lives of faith, lives of Torah, lives of mitzvos. A Jew runs to shul to daven; a Jew runs to a Torah class. A Jew says, “Hear, O Israel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One,” and puts on tefillin even when it’s hard for him, even when he has no time. He sees how the Jewish people conduct themselves in the darkest periods, in the depths of exile, and how Jews stand with mesirus nefesh, risking everything, and serve Hashem in all kinds of ways. He even sees the simplest Jew, who barely manages to fulfill a mitzvah, but whose heart, too, is stirred from time to time to serve Hashem. Moshe Rabbeinu says: This is far from something we can take for granted. Who knows whether, if I lived in that period, I would have the strength to stand firm and endure all those challenges? I stood before Hakadosh Boruch Hu; I received the Torah face to face. I saw all the miracles and wonders of the manna coming down and the splitting of the sea, and so on. So of course I believe. Of course I serve Hashem and study Torah—I’m Moshe Rabbeinu. But when he saw the end of all the generations, “the person on the face of the earth,” and saw how he conducted himself—how, despite all the darkness, all the challenges, and all the difficulties, Jews stand with mesirus nefesh and serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu day after day—that made Moshe Rabbeinu humble. “And the man Moshe was exceedingly humble.” What made Moshe Rabbeinu humble? In addition to what we explained earlier—that he recognized, that he thought to himself, that everything he had was a gift from Heaven—he

10:29 He thought to himself that if someone else had done it, that person would have done a better job. He also looked to the future and saw the people who would live on earth at the end of the generations, in the darkest periods of the depths of exile, and who would nevertheless stand firm in Torah and mitzvos. That gave Moshe Rabbeinu true humility. And here we come to a profound principle. Each of us, in serving Hakadosh Boruch Hu with this humility—which is really what is required of us—must use our strengths and talents to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu, transform worlds, and do great things. But at the same time, we must have the healthy, proper humility to recognize the truth and not become proud of everything we do. Humility is a vessel for the presence of the Shechinah. It is one of the most wonderful and important qualities in a Jew’s service of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. As the Gemara tells us, pride pushes away the presence of the Shechinah. When a person is proud, Hakadosh Boruch Hu withdraws from him, G-d forbid. When a person is humble, the Shechinah rests upon him and blessing rests upon him. And this brings us to an even deeper point: humility also helps us serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu with greater joy. The prophet Yeshayahu says, “The humble will increase their joy in Hashem.” It is precisely the humble person who serves Hakadosh Boruch Hu with greater joy. The obvious question is: What is it about humility that brings joy? Seemingly, a proud person has an expansive spirit, so he is happy. The humble person is restricted, withdrawn. But that is not so, as we have just explained. The humble person does not think poorly of himself. He does not see himself in a negative light. On the contrary, he recognizes all his strengths, but he

12:45 knows he has no reason to be proud of them. They are all gifts from Heaven. If someone else had been given them, he would have done more than I have. So who am I to be upset about what Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives me? On the contrary, I am grateful for everything I have. A person who lacks humility always feels that something is missing. He always thinks he deserves more: Considering how I conduct myself and what I do, Hakadosh Boruch Hu should give me this and that and other things as well. He is never satisfied. The humble person feels that nothing is owed to him. He is happy with his lot. What am I entitled to? Nothing. What have I done? Things I was supposed to do. They’re nothing extraordinary. And if someone else had done them in my place, he might even have done them better. So what do I have to be proud of? And if I have nothing to be proud of, I also have no reason to be upset. I have no reason to be jealous, or to think that I deserve more, that I should have received this or am entitled to that, and so on and so forth. He is happy with what he has, and he is grateful. So it is precisely the humble person who, because of his genuine humility and self-effacement, is always joyful and thanks Hakadosh Boruch Hu for everything He gives him. It follows that when we take on this quality and work to develop healthy humility—humility in which a person recognizes his own worth but knows that everything he has is not his own, that it comes from Above, and that someone else might have done better with it—he looks at others and learns from them. He learns from someone else how he can improve and grow stronger. Humility, then, is the vessel for blessing from Above.

14:37 And this is what the Torah tells us about Moshe Rabbeinu: “The man Moshe was exceedingly humble, more than any person on the face of the earth.” There is no contradiction between recognizing your worth and knowing who you are, and at the same time being exceedingly humble, more than anyone on the face of the earth. May Hakadosh Boruch Hu give us the strength to attain true humility and serve Hashem with joy and gladness of heart. “The humble will increase their joy in Hashem.” It is precisely humility that will bring us great joy, the joy of appreciating what we have. And may Hakadosh Boruch Hu give every Jew from His full, open, holy, and generous hand, until we merit the complete Geulah with Moshiach Tzidkeinu, who is himself truly humble. It is written of Moshiach that despite all his extraordinary greatness, he also possesses great humility: “Humble and riding on a donkey.” As explained, this refers to the humility of Melech HaMoshiach. May we already merit to see the complete Geulah with Moshiach Tzidkeinu, speedily in our days, amen.