Chasidut su Esodo 16:8
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֗ה בְּתֵ֣ת יְהוָה֩ לָכֶ֨ם בָּעֶ֜רֶב בָּשָׂ֣ר לֶאֱכֹ֗ל וְלֶ֤חֶם בַּבֹּ֙קֶר֙ לִשְׂבֹּ֔עַ בִּשְׁמֹ֤עַ יְהוָה֙ אֶת־תְּלֻנֹּ֣תֵיכֶ֔ם אֲשֶׁר־אַתֶּ֥ם מַלִּינִ֖ם עָלָ֑יו וְנַ֣חְנוּ מָ֔ה לֹא־עָלֵ֥ינוּ תְלֻנֹּתֵיכֶ֖ם כִּ֥י עַל־יְהוָֽה׃
E Mosè soggiunse: (Sì,) quando il Signore vi darà a notte carne da mangiare, ed alla mattina pane da saziarvi: mostrando così il Signore d’aver udite le mormorazioni che fate contro di lui. Noi poi che cosa siamo? Le vostre mormorazioni non sono contro di noi, ma contro il Signore.
Kedushat Levi
Deuteronomy 10,12. “and now, Israel, what dos the Lord your G’d ask of you other than to revere and be in awe?”
It is a well known rule in Judaism that we must each endeavour to be modest, humble, in all our aspirations as well as in all our undertakings. In the event that someone were to misinterpret this rule as extending also to the manner in which we relate to serving the Lord, this would be a gross error; on the contrary we must constantly remember that our deeds in terms of serving the Lord are of the utmost importance to Him, and we must therefore try to excel in that realm of our activities. Seeing that our “service” provides Him with pleasure it is logical that we must strive to provide Him with as much “pleasure” as it is possible for us to do. If we were to extend the principle of modesty and humility to the way in which we serve the Lord, and present it as part of our modesty, this would in fact be akin to blasphemy.
Our sages have alluded to this subject in Sotah 5 where the Talmud says that among people excommunicated there are some that are haughty and others that are not. The Talmud had previously recommended that Torah scholars must possess a minimum of visible self respect known as sh’minit be’shminit, (smallest unit of measuring devices) as otherwise ordinary people, instead of revering them, would belittle them, and if that were to happen they would in fact belittle the Torah knowledge that such scholars represent. According to our author, the very fact that we must provide G’d with “pleasure” through our service implies that we ourselves will have some satisfaction of having been the vehicle to cause G’d such “pleasure.” If we were to be too modest, how could we feel privileged to have been this vehicle of G’d’s “pleasure?”
Our sages in Chagigah 7 are on record that the Israelites provide G’d with His sustenance. Receiving one’s sustenance certainly results in the recipient “enjoying” some pleasure from the experience. This is what Moses had in mind when he asked the rhetorical question: “what does the Lord your G’d ask of you? The virtue of יראת השם, “reverence for the Lord,” is none other than the virtue of humility. Our sages in Chulin 89 dwell on the relative humility and modesty of Avraham and Moses, quoting various verses on the subject. They conclude that when Moses said of himself and his brother Aaron: ונחנו מה, “and what do we amount to?” [omitting even the letter א from the word אנחנו for “we,” Ed.] that this is the level of humility that G’d expects of each of us. In other words, whereas concerning all other attributes, humility must accompany them in order for the owner to practice them optimally, when it comes to reverence for the Lord, such considerations are counterproductive; fear/reverence/awe of the Lord must be maximized so as to provide the Lord with a maximal amount of “pleasure.”
It is a well known rule in Judaism that we must each endeavour to be modest, humble, in all our aspirations as well as in all our undertakings. In the event that someone were to misinterpret this rule as extending also to the manner in which we relate to serving the Lord, this would be a gross error; on the contrary we must constantly remember that our deeds in terms of serving the Lord are of the utmost importance to Him, and we must therefore try to excel in that realm of our activities. Seeing that our “service” provides Him with pleasure it is logical that we must strive to provide Him with as much “pleasure” as it is possible for us to do. If we were to extend the principle of modesty and humility to the way in which we serve the Lord, and present it as part of our modesty, this would in fact be akin to blasphemy.
Our sages have alluded to this subject in Sotah 5 where the Talmud says that among people excommunicated there are some that are haughty and others that are not. The Talmud had previously recommended that Torah scholars must possess a minimum of visible self respect known as sh’minit be’shminit, (smallest unit of measuring devices) as otherwise ordinary people, instead of revering them, would belittle them, and if that were to happen they would in fact belittle the Torah knowledge that such scholars represent. According to our author, the very fact that we must provide G’d with “pleasure” through our service implies that we ourselves will have some satisfaction of having been the vehicle to cause G’d such “pleasure.” If we were to be too modest, how could we feel privileged to have been this vehicle of G’d’s “pleasure?”
Our sages in Chagigah 7 are on record that the Israelites provide G’d with His sustenance. Receiving one’s sustenance certainly results in the recipient “enjoying” some pleasure from the experience. This is what Moses had in mind when he asked the rhetorical question: “what does the Lord your G’d ask of you? The virtue of יראת השם, “reverence for the Lord,” is none other than the virtue of humility. Our sages in Chulin 89 dwell on the relative humility and modesty of Avraham and Moses, quoting various verses on the subject. They conclude that when Moses said of himself and his brother Aaron: ונחנו מה, “and what do we amount to?” [omitting even the letter א from the word אנחנו for “we,” Ed.] that this is the level of humility that G’d expects of each of us. In other words, whereas concerning all other attributes, humility must accompany them in order for the owner to practice them optimally, when it comes to reverence for the Lord, such considerations are counterproductive; fear/reverence/awe of the Lord must be maximized so as to provide the Lord with a maximal amount of “pleasure.”
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Flames of Faith
Amalek: An ancient nation that sought to destroy the Jews (see Exod. 16:8-16). They attacked the weakest members of Israel, the elderly and infirm, before the Jewish nation arrived at Sinai to receive the Torah. Haman was a member of this nation (see Esth. 3:1), and he tried to annihilate world Jewry during the reign of Achashveirosh.
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