Re'eh: Humility - the Prerequiste to Torah This week’s Haftorah is the third of the seven prophecies of consolation, prophesized by Jeremiah. It is relatively short, yet contains a powerful message.
The first verse of chapter 55 states:
“Ho, everyone who is thirsty, go to the water, even one with no money, go
buy…”
The Gemara in Ta'anis 7a, explains that the word “water” in this verse is a metaphor for Torah. R’ Chanina Bar Idi explains why the Torah is compared to water: just as water descends from a higher level to a lower level, the words of Torah are only acquired by one who has lowered, meaning humbled, himself. One of the most important prerequisites for acquiring true Torah knowledge is humility.
This concept is also iterated at the beginning of the Ethics of the Fathers. The Mishna states that “Moses received the Torah from Mount Sinai”. One of the commentators, the Tiferes Yisroel, questions why it says that Moses received the Torah from Mount Sinai. Surely, Moses received the Torah from Hashem on Mount Sinai? The Tiferes Yisroel answers that Mount Sinai was teaching Moses a crucial lesson: Mount Sinai was the lowest mountain in its region yet merited to host the giving of the Torah, indicating that only through humility, the source of all good character traits as Nachmanadies writes, will a person merit true Torah knowledge. Hence the Mishna states that Moses received the Torah from Mount Sinai – Moses learnt the essential prerequisite for receiving Torah, from Mount Sinai.
Moses took this lesson seriously as the Torah tells us in Parshas Beha’aloscha (12:3): “Now the man Moses was exceedingly humble, more than any person on the face of the earth!” Reaching this high level of humility allowed Moshe Rabeinu to become a vessel capable of accepting Torah and he reached the highest level of Torah knowledge a human being can attain.
We also find this principle, that humility is a prerequisite to receiving the Torah, at the end of the Amida prayer. We pray first to G-d that our souls should be like dust to everyone and then that our hearts are opened to Torah. Only once a person’s soul is like dust, meaning he humbles himself, can he then ask Hashem to open his heart to Torah.
Jeremiah’s lesson can change our learning experience. Many people learn all day, yet complain they don’t feel the Torah’s affect on themselves. It is vital to understand that the affect of true Torah will only be felt once it has been acquired and it will only be acquired by one who is humble. Without humility, even the Torah, the most powerful thing we have, will not truly penetrate our hearts and become part of us. |
