At the end of the Parsha the פסוק describes משה רבינו by saying:
והאיש משה ענו מאד מכל האדם אשר על פני האדמה
Moshe was the most humble of all men on the face of the earth. This is difficult to understand. We know that משה רבינו was the greatest נביא and the greatest person to ever live, as the פסוק says in וזאת הברכה
ולא קם עוד נביא בישראל כמשה אשר ידעו ה פנים אל פנים
. We find instances in the תורה where משה רבינו stood up strongly to protect his stature as the leader of כלל ישראל. For example, in פרשת קרח when his authority was challenged, משה רבינו told הקב”ה
אל תפן אל מנחתם לא חמור אחד מהם נשאתי ולא הריעותי את אחד מהם.
He stood up firmly to protect his leadership. How then do we understand this seeming contradiction?
To answer this question we need to get a better understanding of the concept of humility. A person who has a feeling of worthlessness may appear to be humble, but in reality that’s false humility. When there is no sense of worth, there will be no drive to accomplish. And that certainly is not the appropriate attitude one should have. Rather, humility is the sense that we do have self worth and a unique mission in life, and that we were given the tools to accomplish our mission. There are individuals who may be given extraordinary talents and strengths, as they were assigned a unique mission. Nonetheless that does not make them better then anyone else, since the tools were given to him by the רבש”ע in order that they should carry our his role.
Recognizing our talents is crucial in life so that we will be able to carry out our unique roll. And when a person does not recognize his strengths, he’s in danger of not carrying out his unique תפקיד.
We find an example of this in פרשת שלח. When the מרגלים relay their negative report to כלל ישראל, they say ונהי בעינינו כחגבים וכן היינו בעיניהם Rashi notes that they said שמענו אומרים נמלים יש בכרמים כאנשים They heard the giants say to each other ” their are ants in the vineyards who look like people” How were the מרגלים able to understand the language of the giants, who did not speak לשון הקודש? Rabbi Dr. Twerski explains that when a person has a bad self image, he projects his insecurity on to others and imagine they feel the same about him as he does.
We can now understand the seeming contradiction in the behavior of משה רבינו. On the one hand, he realized his mission and his greatness. So when his leadership was challenged by קרח he stood up firmly to protect it. Yet he also recognized that this was his תפקיד which was given to him by הקב”ה. And so as great as he was, he did not consider himself better then anyone else, and was not bothered when לשון הרע was spoken about him.
We’ll conclude with a beautiful story The Novominsker Rebbe זצ”ל was once asked to appear in court to testify on behalf of an aquantince who was facing a possible harsh prison sentence. The defence attorney met with the Rebbe prior to his testimony and asked him to describe to the judge who he is and how much weight his word carries in the orthodox world. “The greater you present yourself as, the more respect the judge will have towards your request for leniency in his verdict”, said the defence attorney.
The Rebbe presented himself to the judge and said as follows: “Your honor, let me tell you a bit about myself. I am a leading Rabbi with a large congregation and Teshiva. I sit on the council of great Torah sages. Every important decision in the Orthodox world crosses my desk.” With that he continued with his testimony on behalf of the dependent.
That is what true humility is all about. Knowing your virtues, yet recognizing that all that you have was given to you by הקב”ה to fulfill your unique תפקיד.
Weekly Parsha Shiur 