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HUMILITY
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wimblcgm.
Zhe call of God camé to the PIOyhetS in divcrs ways.
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Some heard his voice, some saw him in
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him in
a dream, some
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vision, some gerceived
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1 loIfr
experienced him in ways which neither sight
n01 sound seemed able adeiuately to describe, some simyly felt
hi9 presence in the course of their daily pursuits or in the
lonely stillness of the wilderness.
Yet all these experiences
had two striking features in cammon: a sense of humility and
a
sense of compulsion to act. Confrsnted by the holiness and
k
the majesty of God té3%féecome overwhelmingly,conscious of
their unholiness and unworthiness.
Moses feels constrained
to hide his ‘face and to take of: his shoes because of the
holiness of the ground on which he gigggs. He protests: Who
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am I that I should do this thing, that I_should lead the children
of Israel out of 3° 3 gt?
And in a later passage he exclaims:
"Oh, my Lbrd, I am not eloguent...but I am slow of speech and
of tongue..; Oh, my Lord, send, I pray, some
a
other person."
Isaiah XEEXKK trembles with the sense of his unworthiness to
fulfil the divine mission —"Woe is me! For 1 fm undone; for I
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am a man of unclean lips, and
I
dweLL in the midst of a ,eoyle
unclean lips, for my eye~ have seen the King, tne nord of
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tosts!"
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Jeremiah
ca-t«
«an, Lord God! Behold, I do not
know how to sgeak, for I am only a youth."
Ezekiel, ahen he
sees his vision, prostrates himseLf nith his face to the around.
But in all these cases there Jollows
a
re—assurahce from God:
unworthy though they éie, God has nevertheless chosen them ty
perform a mission for him, "hich they cannot refuse, and in the
accomplishment of which they will have
help.
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God ré-assuxes Moses: I shall send Jvu, and i shall b: with you;
and shall be with
qr mouth
and teach you what you shall Sgeak.
Isaiah is relieved of his sense of guilt so that he may overcome
his feeling or imgotcnce and act on God's behalf; in his vision,
or
day—dream, an angel touches his ligs with the purifying flame
o; a burning coal and says: Behold, this
has touched your lipg;
your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven. Jereniah
receives this encouragement: "Do not say, I am only a youth;
for to all to whom I send you you shall go, and whatever I command
you you shall sgeak. Be not afraid of them, for I am with you to
delifier you, says the Lordf and to Ezekiel, lying prostrate on
the ground, God says: "Son of men, stand upon your feet, and I
Will sgeak With you...I send you to the people of Israel... and
‘h ther they hear
has been
a
or
refuse to hear.;.they will know that there
yrophgt among them...:ear them not, nor be dismayed
at their lQOKS."
This intense feeling of humility was, with the Prophets,
an effect of their religious experience.
pre-condition pf that experience.
But it was also a
Unless they had been humble
in the first place, the experience would never have come to them.
Humility is ghe indispensable grereguisite for comuunion with
God. 3—od"dwells with him tkat ii ‘of a humble and contrmta
spirit“. He does not — L,erhaps cannot - enter the heart of the
Ervud and haughty. "Concerning
she man XKKX who is filled with
pride, fiKflX§HX§XXX the Talmud makes God say:
"i
and he cannot
dwell together in the world." And again the m$1mua declares:
_ 5 _
"Everyone that is filled with pride is as if he had
or,
acc-rdin5
to
denied God",
another vérSion, like one Who warships idols.
A chaSidic rabbi suggests a reason for this: "There is no room
for God in him who is fiull of himself."
and so it seems that if we would experience the gresence of
God in our lives, the first thing we must do is to recognise and
overcome our pride, our exaggerated sense of self—imyortence.
But that is no easy task. Indeed a frontal attack on our pride
is more likely to have the ogyosite effect: it tends to create a
kind of inverted pride: that is
to
say a delipexate and artificial
§hZXK§KK§Efi§KX belittling of oneself which is merely external and
‘superficial; and it has tne advantage, from the proud man's point
of view, that it provokes canstant contradictions which tickle his
vanity. An attitude of humility can be developed only eradually:
and it is aevelopea best in an unconscioas way, by concentrating
on other things: an the Voodness of_-ther geople, on the greatness
of the universe, aéd on cagnudinn With Gdd.
An; so we return to
our paradox: We need humility in‘order to cOAuune with God; yet
it is by communing with God that we can best aciuire that finality
of humility. The truth seems to be that a certain amount of hwnility
is necessary fbr the establishment of contact with God; but that
the contact so achieved deepens tne humility. So it is that all
the great men and woncn of religion began by being humble but grew
in humility all their Lives.
Moses, as we have seen, showed
huaility at the very begi nning of his ministry. But years later,
in the wilderness, after all the evnnts of
Sinai, his humility
_ 4 _
we
is described in these terms:
"Now the man Moses was very humble,
more than all men that were on the face of the earth". He — perhaps
the greatest religious leader of all times — was the humblest of all
menl
The truth underlying this can be seen again in the Prophets
and in the pious of all generations. Could there be a humble: man
than Rabbi Leo Baeck or
a
humbler woman than Miss Montagu?
And
of the founder of our Liberal dewish Movement, Claude Montefiore,
this has buen said by hls bio_rapher: "Noone could hold others in
higher esteem or himself in lower."
That is true humility, and it
was the accomganiment ahd the odtcome of a lifetime of religious
thought, meditation and prayer.
And so, While we cannot deliver a frontal attack on our
pride, we mast cultivate thase habits of thoaght, feeling and
action which will fiend to diminish and subdue it.
arch-enemy of religion.
Pride is the
This is what a Christian theologian has
to say abOJt it. "Pride leads to every other vice: it is the
comylete anti—God stLte of mind...Pride is essentially competitive...
[ride gets no gleasure out of having something, only out 5f having
more or it than the next man. We say that people are groud of being
rich, or clever, or good looking, but they are not. They are proud
of being richer, oi cleverer, or better looking than others...
it's the comparison that makes you proud: the gleasure of being
ébove the xest...If I am a
proud man, then, as long as there is
one man in the whole world more ,ouerful, or richer, or cleverer
than I, he is my rival and my enemy... Pride always means enmity —
it g§ enmity. and not only enmity bbwween ban and man, but enmity
to God. In God you come up against something which
is in ever“d
o
.
_ 5 _
t
resgect immeasurably superior
to
you self. Unless you know God as
that — and therefor: know yourself as nothing in comparison -
you can't knew God at all. As loné'as you are rredd you can't know
God at all. A proud man is alwaJs looking down on things and
peOple: and, of course, as long as you're looking dewn, you can't
see something that's above you.“
The same thought that pride consists essentially in‘cumparing
oneseli with others and looking donn on them is expressed by Jewish
writers, and especially by the Chasidic Movement Which lgid such
yicfound stress on humility.
Martin Buber expounds the Chasiaic
view in tfiese words: "Pride is to contrast oneself with mtheIS.
It is not he who knows himself who is proud—minded, but only he
who compares himself With others." And a Tsaddik, or religious
leader of the Chasidim, is reported to have declared: "If the
messiah Should come to—day, ana should say: ydu are better than
the otheIS, then I should say: You are not the Messiah."
That must suffice to convince you vi the suprane importance
of cultivating in ourselves an attitude of true, sincere humility
towards our iqllow—men and towards God“ In doing
so we
must guard
against the danger of "inverted pride". Hut we mustyalso beware
of that exaggerated humility,
vhich'may be geréectly sinceae,
and Which is called self—abasanent.
Humility is
a Jewish,
as well
as a Chr*stian virame. Self—abaéement is not. In Christianity there
is a tendency to graise it. Christians speak of self-forgetfulness,
self—effacement, self—denial, and so on, with high approval.
The Christian writer from whom I have quoted C.s,Lewis
.g
M
_ 6 _
‘
‘2
‘makes this characteristic remark in the same chagter: "The real
test of being in the presence Di God is that you either forget
about yaurself altogether or see yourself as
a small,
dirty Obéect."
This kind of self—abasement is a tendency Which Judaism
discountenances and waras against. It insists emphatiCLlly oh men's
duty to maintain his self—respect, and the humility it demands is
of the kind Which goes with gels—respect.
When the Bible stresses
man's insignificanée, it also stresses his dignity.
"What is man
that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man thatfithou visitest
him? Yet thou hast made him but little lower than the angéés, and
cronnest him with glory and honour."
refuse, to ahanflon
Judaism has refused, and does
the faith that man was made in the image of God.
find it insists, as a matter of paaamount import-nce, that man Should
constanfly maintain his consciousness of this fact énd the dignity
it
bestows on hig. It is by dwelling on his kinshifi with God, rather
than on his sinfalness, that he can best rise above the latter.
By dwelling unduly on his unworthiness, man runs the grave danger
of.£oxgett1ng his dignity and losing his self—reSyect. A Chsidic
rabbi declares: "What is the worst thing the Evil Inclination can
achieve? To make man forget that he is the son of
a
king?"
And
again:”When the Jvil Inclination approaches, whispering in the ear:
"You are unworthy to fulfil the new", say "I am worthy".
Why does Judaism insist so strongly on self-respect? First,
because it is, like humility, an essential ingredient in the frame
of mind in whiéh we can best exgerience God. In seeking to‘establish
contact with th
Almighty, it helps us to realise that we have an
“‘
’—
affinity
to
him, however remote. "It was by a special favour that
it was made known to man that he had been created in the iaage of God."
But secondly becaws; tgo much self—abasement paralyses action.
In the words of a chasidic saying, "If anyone abseas himself too
much and forgets that
a man,
through his words and behaviour,
can call down an overwflowing blessing on all the world — this is
not humility."
We are unworthy only relatively. We are never upworthy
absolutely. We are worthy to be God's servanES. We are capable of
being God's servants. We are ca;Led uion to be God's servants.
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And if we resyond to the call, then God supports us and guides
us,
despite our
unworthiness, just as he supyorted and guided Moses and Isaihh,
Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
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,
We are worthy to fulfil {he Law.
Wb are
through our words and behaviour, of calling dawn
an overflowing blessing on all the wetla. To the divine call,
we not only can, but must reSpond, with Isaiah, "Here am I,
send me."