ON HAUGHTINESS AND HUMILITY

Parashat Ekev

Av 22, 5785 / August 15-16, 2025
Torah: Deuteronomy 7:12 - 11:25
Haftarah: Isaiah 49:14 - 51:3 (Second Haftarah of Comfort)

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This d’var torah is offered for a refuah shleimah and a speedy and safe return of all the hostages being held by Hamas.

This d’var torah is offered for an end to the hunger crisis in Gaza.

Lunch and Learn meet again on September 8.

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ON HAUGHTINESS AND HUMILITY

"And your heart will be haughty, and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery." Deuteronomy 8:14 

"And you will say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.'" Deuteronomy 8:17

There is an old joke that goes something like this: A noted scholar and philanthropist was being honored at a gala dinner. Speaker after speaker extolled his virtues - knowledge, wisdom, generosity, kindness, righteousness, etc. He reached up and tugged on the sleeve of one of the speakers, and said, "Don't forget my humility."

The Ba'al Shem Tov says that there is nowhere in the Torah a commandment to be humble. If there were, there would be those who would attempt to fulfill it by reciting a statement of intent ("Behold, I am prepared to perform the mitzvah of humility ..."), then a blessing (".... and commanded us to be humble."), and then … commence to be humble? It would become a conceit – the belief that, in addition to fulfilling the other commandments, they were observing the commandment to be humble. Unlike any other mitzvah, one would fail to observe it merely by believing that one was attempting to fulfill it or had observed it. "I can say with all humility that I have been humble." It sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?

What about people who aren't even "humility posers", if you will? In the verses between and surrounding our verses here, Moses exhorts the people to remember that their freedom and their wealth were not their achievements. Rather, they benefited solely from God's help - they had accomplished little on their own. And by extension, we can see that no person truly achieves anything completely on their own. Everyone relies on parents, teachers, friends, associates, employees, etc. To me, this is a simple truth that is undeniable. As Donne said, "No man is an island."

We know that a lack of humility can often be damaging to relationships. We tend to forget that neither we nor our accomplishments exist in a vacuum. Even praise for one’s humility can be a bit dangerous. Perhaps the only way to be truly humble is to run from any suggestion that one is humble - without being haughty about it!

Shabbat Shalom!

Rabbi Richard A. Flom
Rabbi Emeritus, Temple B’nai Hayim
.אֵיזֶהוּ חָכָם? הַלוֹמֵד מִכָּל אָדָם
Who is wise? The one who learns from every person.
Ben Zoma - Pirkei Avot 4:1
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