Reward of Humility

We are about to begin the Book of Leviticus, which is also known as Torat Kohanim, the Laws of Kohanim, due to the many laws which relate to the priests and their service in the Sanctuary.

If we look at the first verse of this section in a Torah scroll, we will notice that the letter of the word (“He called”) is smaller than the other letters. It is not the only letter which is written smaller in the Torah; there:

Our sages teach us that when God commanded Moses to write the word “He called”, Moses felt uncomfortable. Moses thought that the word “He called” sounded too much like friends talking with each other. He thought, “How can I write that ‘He called’ to me? It gives the impression that I’m buddies with G-d, and speak to Him all the time, even though I am unworthy of this privilege and am just a simple person.” Moses instead wanted to write the word “” (“and He happened”), the same term which describes the form of prophecy which Bilaam received — “And God happened to Bilaam.” Moses wanted to compare his prophecy to Bilaam’s prophecy, to create the impression that his talking with God was not a daily phenomenon, but random and temporary.

G-d did not agree with Moses, but He allowed him to reduce the letter of the word , so that from a distance, a reader will think it says , while on closer inspection, he will see that it is . That is how Moses wrote down it.

Moses’s act of humility was rewarded by his skin radiating light. How did it come about? We know that each letter in the Torah was precisely calculated. When a scribe is writing with ink, he fills his pen with ink from the inkwell, and begins to write the letters. When the ink finishes in the pen, he again inserts the pen in the inkwell and continues writing until he finishes writing the entire book. Of course, sometimes ink remains in the pen even after he finishes writing.

When Moses wrote the Torah on Mount Sinai, the amount of ink he was given was perfectly measured. The amount of ink in his inkwell was the exact amount he needed to write the whole Torah. But when Moses reduced the letter of the word , ink that was supposed to have been used was now left over. Seeing that, God took the leftover drop of ink, and dabbed it on Moses’s forehead. This caused his face to shine so brilliantly, that people could not look at Moses unless he wore a mask.

We learn from this the great reward of humility. One who trains himself to be humble, doesn’t pursue honor, and doesn’t act haughty to others — everyone wishes such a person well, wants to spend time with him, and in the end, he gets twice as much respect and admiration.

This is true in any relationship affecting two people, and it is also true concerning domestic harmony. A husband and wife who are arguing need to possess a measure of humility in order to be flexible and reach common ground — not by bullying and power plays, but out of a real desire to solve the problem.

Similarly for friends: it happens that a friend insults us or is offensive to us. One’s immediate response is often to respond in kind and give it back to him. But the quality of humility tells a person to let it go, let the situation pass, and keep it to oneself. When one adopts such a attitude, one’s life will be filled with happiness and light.

Shabbat Shalom