Lechteich Mussar Podcast
Join us as we explore the depth of bitachon, as explained in the timeless sefer Shaar HaBitachon.
Lechteich Mussar Podcast
Beis HaLevi #38 - Chizuk for Attaining the Middah of Anavah - Even the Best of Us Has Nothing to be Proud Of
"In his timeless essay on Anavah (humility), the Beis HaLevi, Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, delves into the essence of this foundational trait and how it enhances our relationship with Hashem, with others and with ourselves. What does true humility look like? And how can we cultivate this vital quality in our own lives?" -ArtScroll Beis HaLevi on Anavah
Okay, everybody, welcome back to the Lech Teich Moshe podcast. We continue with the Beis HaLevi on Anova. We are continuing with Parikir Gimel, chapter 13. Hesorius la'anova. A person always wants esorius. A person always wants to be inspired, to hear the right things, the right perspective. So the Beis HaLevi himself is going to give us some esorius, some inspiration to acquire the trait of anava, of humility.
Speaker 1:If a person would analyze himself, he should be embarrassed and not be prideful. His body, after death, is a flesh shameful, putrid and warm-eaten. He is born from a putrid drop and warm eaten. He's born from a putrid drop. He's dust in his lifetime and he goes to a place of dust. This is all from the Yigar Sanarban and the composition of his body is weaker than all of the other creatures.
Speaker 1:So, firstly, we learn that even a mosquito preceded man in the process of creation, and also all the sufferings and hardships that affect the world. It all revolves and plays out on man. We're the target of everything in this world and if a person is prideful, a man is prideful regarding his levels of intellect. Indeed, they are valued as nothing in emptiness, even if a person, a man, is the wisest of the wise. The passage about him about. Such a person says the wise are as devoid of wisdom and the perceptive as if devoid of intelligence. And if all these things are said, of the people that are smart, they're wise. All the more so about people that are foolish like us, whose foolishness increases without limit. All the more so about people that are foolish like us. Even a smart person, a person who thinks he's intelligent, is a pauper who is haughty. A person who thinks he's smart, a person who thinks he possesses wisdom, at the end of the day is literally nothing. He's considered a daal in terms of intellect, a pauper. We can't look at our that we think accrued to tremendous, to tremendous, and we should be proud of it, for the bad deeds unfortunately outnumber the good deeds, both in value, in quantity and quality. If only we would have one mitzvah performed properly.
Speaker 1:Man should always be introspective and think His friends would know of his inner secrets and all of his thoughts that occurred to him, whether it's during davening, resting and throughout the entire course of the day. They would distance themselves from him as much as possible because of the evil of his character and they would consider him literally an abomination. This is a frightening thing, but if you all think about it a little bit and we think of our thoughts and our machshavos and where our mind wanders and what we think and what we conjure up. And we think, if only if other people would know what's going on in our minds, so, as the Bais Levy, they would look at us as a te'eva, as an abomination, and our entire success is only predicated on the fact that other people don't really know what's going on in the pnemius, in the deep down inner chambers of our minds, of our hearts, but ba'etz, in the deep down inner chambers of our minds, of our hearts. But, by the way, we're very, very low. We have bad thoughts, we have bad machshavis, we don't have clarity, we have lustful thoughts and people would consider us an abomination.
Speaker 1:And of course it says in the Bais Levit If we think, if our neighbor knew our friend, our relative knew all the things that were going on in our mind, the Eberster knows how little, how low are we really we might be successful, we might look great, we might be matzlach, and that's what Hashem wants us to strive to do. But in terms of the midah of gaiva, we certainly should never feel that, we should never feel that we've made it because, deep down, hashem knows Baruch Hinovav. Hashem knows the inner thoughts and everything that goes deep down inside of us. And we are none of us. No one virtually says the Bais Alevi, none of us. Even the wisest of men is considered devoid of wisdom and devoid of intelligence. So HaKadosh Baruch Hu knows everything that's going on inside of us. How can a man not submit before him and with what can he be prideful?