Anavah (ענוה) — Humility

Core definition

Anavah — humility — is "the greatest of all" middos [15966/maamar_021 :: Intro]. The Midrash Rabbah on Koheles ("im ruach hamoshel ta'aleh alecha, mekomcha al tanach") teaches: "if you came to rulership, do not leave your anavah's measure — to teach you that whoever leaves his humility causes death to himself (Heaven forbid) and sins to his generation," learned from Zecharyah, who saw himself great — the king's son-in-law, kohen gadol, navi, dayan — and was killed; unlike Yechaziel, who made himself equal to the kahal [15966/maamar_021 :: Intro].

How the Rebbeim develop it

The gadol hador's weakening. "Ki marpe yanich chata'im gedolim": the generation's gadol weakens himself from ruling over the tzibbur — which is the anavah's matter — and through this is not caught in the generation's sin: that is "yanich chata'im gedolim" [15966/maamar_021 :: Intro]. Thus Moshe was not punished for the egel: he was punished — "red migedulasecha" (descend from your greatness), losing the thousand lights — but not for the egel itself; and Aharon and Yehoshua, though in the land, were not caught either [15966/maamar_021 :: Intro].

Moshe's utmost. Moshe was "in the utmost of anavah": "v'ha'ish Moshe anav me'od" (Bamidbar 12:3) — and the Torah testifies of him, "ki ha'ish Moshe anav me'od mikol ha'adam asher al p'nei ha'adamah" — in the utmost exaggeration of the anavah middah [15966/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 45–51]. Aharon too was anav — in the level of "mah" ("v'Aharon mah hu") — but not at Moshe's level [15966/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 52–53; Intro].

Anavah as teshuvah's way. "The anavah middah is among the teshuvah ways": as the Rambam wrote, "this teshuvah is refu'ah (healing) to the world" — for the world is he'elam (concealment), and teshuvah is refu'ah to the he'elam ("gedolah teshuvah she'mevi'ah refu'ah la'olam"). Through this refu'ah of teshuvah — the sins' forgiveness — "yanich chata'im gedolim": even great sins are forgiven [15966/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 90–96]. "One who is anav and forgiving on his insult is called an ish erech apayim" — of him it is said (Mishlei 16:32), "tov erech apayim migibor" (better the forbearing than the mighty) [15966/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 97–98].

The place of anavah. The refu'ah is from arich anpin — Keser's level: "there is the anavah's place" — as written in Reishis Chochmah, Sha'ar HaAnavah ch. 1: "the thirteen middos of rachamim show on anavah" [15966/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 99–101]. Therefore "through the generation's gadol being anav — he heals his generation's great sins" [15966/maamar_021 :: עב׳ 102].

Making himself equal to the kahal. Yechaziel was "b'soch hakahal" — making himself equal to the kahal: "in him anavah's level, to equal himself to the kahal" — though he was higher without proportion [15966/maamar_021 :: Intro]. When the gadol seeks in himself — "also in thinness of thinness" — the generation's sin, his rebuke comes from a submitted heart; "words coming from the heart enter the hearer's heart," and he gives power to his generation's men to fix the sin [15966/maamar_021 :: Intro].

Key distinctions

Related concepts

Sources