Beha’alosecha 5785: Nobility of Humility

GOOD MORNING! Last week Science Advances, a well-respected science journal, published a paper on a new class of powerful cosmic explosions called Extreme Nuclear Transients (ENTs), which are considered the most spectacular and energetic explosions ever observed in the universe.

These events which are exceedingly rare, are characterized by their extreme brightness, which can be nearly 10 times greater than typical tidal disruption events, where black holes rip apart stars. Unlike tidal disruption events that last for hours, ENTs remain luminous for years and surpass the energy output of even the brightest known supernovae.

ENTs are significantly more energetic than typical supernovae, radiating the energy of 100 Suns compared to a supernova’s one Sun lifetime equivalent. They are so luminous that they can temporarily outshine all stars and supernovae in their host galaxy.

I thought of this article as the world watched the spectacular explosions resulting from the absolute shredding of the Donald Trump-Elon Musk alliance. To be sure, given their similarly self-centered, self-promoting, and megalomaniacal personalities it could not have ended any other way; it was just a matter of time. This relationship going nuclear has been a sight to behold.

I am reminded of the joke about the two patients in a psychiatric ward. The nurse walks into their room and turns to one and asks, “How are you doing today?” The patient replies with a huff, “That’s no way to address me!” “What do you mean?” asks the nurse. “You should address someone of my stature with respect and humility!” said the patient indignantly.

“Oh, I should? And why is that?” asks the nurse with a smile. “Because I am the king!” the patient exclaims. “Really now? And who told you that?” the nurse asked skeptically. “God did!” replied the patient. Suddenly the patient from the other bed sits up and shouts, “I did not!”

Perhaps what this world needs, more than anything, are leaders with a healthy sense of humility. C.S. Lewis famously said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.”

In this week’s Torah portion the Torah makes an extraordinary statement about Moses:

“Moses was exceedingly humble, more so than any man on earth” (Numbers 12:3).

Even though being ranked #1 in humility seems to contain some element of cognitive dissonance, the Torah states outright that Moses was the most modest person alive (although one can only imagine what his reaction must have been when the Almighty asked him to write those words into the Torah).

Some time ago, I saw a list of proper approaches to practicing humility. I have made some changes to the list, and I encourage you to adapt these six habits (and add to them) as you see fit. Then adopt as many as you can into your daily life.

1. Speak as little as possible about yourself
2. Avoid being overly curious about the lives of others and never gossip
3. Except irritations with good humor
4. Do not dwell on the faults of others
5. Accept censures even if you feel they are unmerited
6. Be courteous and kind, even when provoked

The statement quoted above about the humility of Moses is found at the end of this week’s Torah reading. There we find the remarkable incident of Moses’ sister Miriam sinning by speaking loshon hora (“gossip”) about Moses.

The Almighty appears and angrily defends Moses by explaining that Moses was different from all other prophets in that other prophets needed to fall into a prophetic trance to receive prophecy while Moses received prophecy as casually as a man talking to his friend. God describes Moses, “He is a trusted servant, he exists in the entirety of my house. With him I speak face to face without allegory. He sees a true picture of God” (Numbers 12:7-8).

The Torah refers to him as an “eved ne’eman – a trusted servant.” The word ne’eman is a derivative of the word emunah, which is usually translated as faith – here it would seem to mean “faithful servant.” What does this really mean and how is it relevant to how he received prophecy?

Maimonides (1138-1204) aka Rambam, the great Jewish philosopher and codifier of Jewish Law authored a work known as a Sefer Hamitzvot – a complete listing of the 613 commandments found in the Torah and a brief description of each.

This compilation begins, “The first mitzvah is that we are commanded in belief – emunas – of God. That is; He is the origin and cause of all that exists, and He is the power behind all of existence. The source of this mitzvah is found in (the first sentence of the Ten Commandments); ‘I am the Lord your God’” (Exodus 20:2).

Nachmanides (1190-1270) aka Ramban, was another famous medieval Rabbinic scholar and philosopher who is widely regarded as the greatest of his generation. He wrote a commentary on Maimonides’ Sefer Hamitzvot. Nachmanides commented on the points in the work with which he disagreed.

On this very first commandment Nachmanides asked an absolutely devastating question: How is it possible to have a commandment requiring a person to believe in God? A commandment, by definition, implies a “commander” – so if you have a commandment then you already believe in God who issued the command. If you do not believe in a “commander” then you cannot have a commandment. It is circular logic.

For this reason, Nachmanides disagreed and said that belief in the Almighty is a requirement and prerequisite to all the commandments, and it is therefore not to counted as a separate mitzvah.

I believe that Maimonides has a fundamentally different understanding of what emunah means and it is not belief or faith.

It is important to understand that Judaism is not a religion of “belief”; it is a religion that requires a knowledge of God. In fact, this is exactly what Maimonides wrote in his magnum opus on Jewish Law known as Yad Hachazaka, “The foundation of all foundations and pillar of all wisdom is to know that there is a first being who brought everything into existence” (Mada 1:1).

Maimonides clearly states that we are commanded to “know” that there is a God and not to merely “believe” in a God. Knowledge is a much higher level of certainty, and that is the very foundation of Judaism. Given that we are commanded to “know” that there is a God, Maimonides could not possibly be of the opinion that the first mitzvah is to merely “believe” in God.

Every translation is an interpretation. For this reason, it is particularly important to always look at the origin of words and their usage in their original context. A full accounting of the sources for the word emunah in the Torah is beyond the scope of this article, but it seems to be rooted in the concept of being ever-present (see Exodus 17:12).

The word for this in English is immanence – from the Latin immanere – and a very obvious cognate of the Hebrew word emunah. I believe that Maimonides is teaching us that the first commandment is to affirm the immanence of the Almighty. In other words, we must constantly be aware and act as if we are always in the presence of the Almighty. This means that every time we are confronted with a moral challenge we must affirm that we exist in the presence of the Almighty by making the proper choice.

This is why, according to Maimonides, it is the very first mitzvah – it is the fundamental tenet of living in a theocentric universe. We are obligated to continually affirm the ever-presence of the Almighty in our lives. Everything we do either confirms or denies this reality. This is also why the word amen (also clearly related to the word emunah) means, “I affirm.”

Man was created with a desire for self-fulfillment and self-achievement. This is all too often manifested in the negative trait of self-indulgence. Simply put, we want to do what we want to do and not be restrained in any way. At the most basic level, whenever we sin we are saying to God, “You’re not the boss of me! I can do whatever I want.” When we sin we are actively ignoring the ever-presence of the Almighty in our lives, and it is a failure of this first mizvah – the responsibility of affirming His immanence in our lives.

Similarly, every time we do something that we know is wrong or particularly bad for our health (smoking, overeating, etc.) it involves some version of “I know this is wrong, but I want to do what I want to do.” This is, of course, the challenge of being human and learning how to properly exercise our freewill is a lifelong challenge.

The only human to ever overcome this and achieve living in the ever presence of the Almighty is Moses – that is what the Torah is referring to when it characterizes Moses as an eved ne’eman – he was always in the presence of the Almighty. That is why his prophecy was different from all the other prophets who first had to fall into a trance. They, like all humans, flickered in and out of the Almighty’s presence. Moses remained firmly rooted in the presence of the Almighty – always.

Beha’alosecha, Numbers 8:1 – 12:16

Aaron is commanded in the lighting of the Menorah, the Levites purify themselves for service in the Tabernacle (they trained from age 25-30 and served from age 30-50). The first Passover is celebrated since leaving Egypt. The Almighty instructs the Jewish people to journey into the desert whenever the ever-present cloud lifts from above the Tabernacle and to camp where it rests. Moses is instructed to make two silver trumpets to be sounded before battle or to proclaim a yom tov (holiday).

The people journey to the wilderness of Paran, during which time they rebelled twice against the Almighty’s leadership. The second time they complain about the boring taste of the maneh and the lack of meat in the desert. The Almighty sends a massive quantity of quail and those who rebelled died.

Moses asks his father-in-law, Yitro (Jethro) to travel with them in the desert, but Yitro returns to Midian.

Miriam, Moses’ sister, speaks lashon hora (defaming words) about Moses. She is struck with tzora’as (the mystical skin disease, which indicated that a person spoke improperly about another person) and is exiled from the camp for one week.

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