Shof’tim
Deuteronomy 16:18 – 21:9
As much as we are to engage in the process of Teshuvah with Tzedek, with “Right View,” our sages also advise us to do it with humility. Humility is one of those words that is often misunderstood. We know its opposite to be arrogance or pride, but in our minds we associate it with the idea of meekness, submissiveness, a lowliness that invites humiliation, and we feel a profound aversion toward that. To make matters worse, we live in a society that rewards people with narcissistic charismatic personalities and overlooks or even looks down upon the unpretentious, the modest, the unassuming. But Mussar—a Jewish practice of ethical and spiritual discipline—offers a definition that opens a doorway to the deeper meaning of humility. For the teachers of Mussar, real humility is not about pathological self-abasement or servility; rather, it is about strengthening a healthy sense of self. It is not about making yourself “less than” what you are, but about being exactly and fully who you are. True humility is about constraining ourselves to occupy only the space fitting to us, while leaving all the rest of space for others to do the same. “Space” here can be understood figuratively, but can also refer to the physical, interpersonal, and/or emotional space each of us inhabits.
Torah sees this definition of humility as a paragon of behavior for all persons, and especially emphasizes that those in leadership positions must live by it. In this week’s portion Moses describes the kind of king the people should choose to rule over them once they settle in the land — advice relevant in our time, perhaps, as we are about to cast our vote this November. This king, Moses urges, must be humble:
…he shall not keep many horses or send people back to Egypt to add to his horses… And he shall not have many wives, lest his heart go astray; nor shall he amass silver and gold to excess. When he is seated on his royal throne, he shall have a copy of this Torah… Let it remain with him and let him read in it all his life… He will thus not act haughtily toward his fellows or deviate from the instruction to the right or to the left… (Deut. 17:16-20)
As we enter the process of Teshuvah in this month of Elul, we need humility to help us discern whether we, in our own life, have deviated right or left, overstepping our rightful space. Humility is the conduit through which we are able to take an honest inventory of our behavior and measure the ways we have let our ego either overflow its boundaries or shrink in the face of life’s challenges. Do you make enough room in your life for others, or do you find yourself mostly focused on your own story? Do you tend to take over other people’s space, or, on the other hand, deflate in their presence? Do you hold your ground for what you believe in, or do you often shrink from the space you ought to claim? Humility helps us see ourselves from an objective, measured, truthful perspective. As such, it is a wholesome ground for the introspective journey we are on. May it guide our steps to find greater clarity about who we are, so that we may become more fully who, at the soul level, we know ourselves to be.