Torah, Judaism and Jewish Networking
On Humility
RE: Humility
Two of the greatest men who ever lived, and who are remembered particularly for their meekness, are Moses and Hillel the Elder; Moses, because it is written of him (Num. 12:3): "Now the man Moses was very meek, etc.," and Hillel the Elder, because it is written of him (Shabbat 30b – end) that he exercised humility towards other men.
The sign of a meek and humble man is that he will not slight others because of his more superior knowledge. Moreover, if he must correct a man for some wrong action, or thought, he does so without embarrassing him.
A case in point is when Hillel the Elder (Shabbat 31a; Avos deRebbe Nosson, ch. 15), who was then the President of the Sanhedrin, was approached by a youth on a Friday, close to the reception of the holy Sabbath when men are usually pressed for time to get to the synagogue and are easily agitated. Hillel had just finished bathing himself and was drying his hair, when suddenly a youth approached him, trying to provoke Hillel to anger, and saying: "Who is Hillel here? Who is Hillel here?" Normally, any Jewish man or child would have addressed Hillel by the title of "Rabbi," saying, "Is there here a Rabbi by the name of Hillel?" Rather, the youth's intention was to provoke Hillel to anger. Instead, Hillel came out and draped himself in his mantle and answered the disrespectful youth: "My son, what can I do to help you?" Instead of asking the Rabbi a pertinent question, he asked the Rabbi why the Babylonians have long, narrow heads, hoping thereby to anger him, since Hillel was a Babylonian Jew. Hillel, with extreme patience, said to the disrespectful youth that he had asked a very, very important question, and that it was because the mid-wives in Babylonia when delivering the babies at childbirth were not very wise, and would give the babies to servants to be reared upon their knees, etc. instead of upon cots.
This repeated itself altogether three times, the same youth returning with the same impudence and disrespect, calling out each time, "Who is Hillel here? Who is Hillel here?" (as if he didn't know the Rabbi) and asking other impertinent questions, precisely when Hillel was making himself ready to go-off to the synagogue for Sabbath prayers. On each occasion, Hillel was not angered by the conduct of the youth, or by his rudeness, but with patience answered the young man's questions.
Meekness is not a trait easily come-by. A man cannot pretend to have it. It's either there or it is not.
Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair, in Mishna Sotah ch. 9 (end), taught how to acquire the habitude of all good virtues. He said that it begins with bodily cleanliness. This, he said, eventually leads one to acquire a state of ritual cleanness (purity). Having done this, it leads him to abstinence. Abstinence leads him to holiness, and holiness leads him to humility.
This is the way he prescribes for acquiring meekness, or humility - if that is what a man desires to have.
Afterwards, we find that humility leads a man to shun away from sin, and the shunning of sin leads to saintliness, and saintliness leads to the gift of the Holy Spirit (ruach hakodesh), and the Holy Spirit leads to the resurrection of the dead!
David
Two of the greatest men who ever lived, and who are remembered particularly for their meekness, are Moses and Hillel the Elder; Moses, because it is written of him (Num. 12:3): "Now the man Moses was very meek, etc.," and Hillel the Elder, because it is written of him (Shabbat 30b – end) that he exercised humility towards other men.
The sign of a meek and humble man is that he will not slight others because of his more superior knowledge. Moreover, if he must correct a man for some wrong action, or thought, he does so without embarrassing him.
A case in point is when Hillel the Elder (Shabbat 31a; Avos deRebbe Nosson, ch. 15), who was then the President of the Sanhedrin, was approached by a youth on a Friday, close to the reception of the holy Sabbath when men are usually pressed for time to get to the synagogue and are easily agitated. Hillel had just finished bathing himself and was drying his hair, when suddenly a youth approached him, trying to provoke Hillel to anger, and saying: "Who is Hillel here? Who is Hillel here?" Normally, any Jewish man or child would have addressed Hillel by the title of "Rabbi," saying, "Is there here a Rabbi by the name of Hillel?" Rather, the youth's intention was to provoke Hillel to anger. Instead, Hillel came out and draped himself in his mantle and answered the disrespectful youth: "My son, what can I do to help you?" Instead of asking the Rabbi a pertinent question, he asked the Rabbi why the Babylonians have long, narrow heads, hoping thereby to anger him, since Hillel was a Babylonian Jew. Hillel, with extreme patience, said to the disrespectful youth that he had asked a very, very important question, and that it was because the mid-wives in Babylonia when delivering the babies at childbirth were not very wise, and would give the babies to servants to be reared upon their knees, etc. instead of upon cots.
This repeated itself altogether three times, the same youth returning with the same impudence and disrespect, calling out each time, "Who is Hillel here? Who is Hillel here?" (as if he didn't know the Rabbi) and asking other impertinent questions, precisely when Hillel was making himself ready to go-off to the synagogue for Sabbath prayers. On each occasion, Hillel was not angered by the conduct of the youth, or by his rudeness, but with patience answered the young man's questions.
Meekness is not a trait easily come-by. A man cannot pretend to have it. It's either there or it is not.
Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair, in Mishna Sotah ch. 9 (end), taught how to acquire the habitude of all good virtues. He said that it begins with bodily cleanliness. This, he said, eventually leads one to acquire a state of ritual cleanness (purity). Having done this, it leads him to abstinence. Abstinence leads him to holiness, and holiness leads him to humility.
This is the way he prescribes for acquiring meekness, or humility - if that is what a man desires to have.
Afterwards, we find that humility leads a man to shun away from sin, and the shunning of sin leads to saintliness, and saintliness leads to the gift of the Holy Spirit (ruach hakodesh), and the Holy Spirit leads to the resurrection of the dead!
David
Tags: hillel-the-elder, humility, meekness
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