Keep it Great, Keep it Humble
By Rabbi Shimon Raichik
This week is parshas Vayikra. In a Sicha (Likutei Sichos v. 17) the Rebbe quotes the Previous Rebbe who discusses the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek’s education. The Alter Rebbe was the Tzemach Tzedek’s caretaker in matters of education and personally brought the Tzemach Tzedek to cheder.
The Alter Rebbe gave the teacher guidance to teach the first parsha in Sefer Vayikra. When they completed the first parsha the Tzemach Tzedek asked the Alter Rebbe why the aleph in Vayikra is small, not the regular medium size letters that the rest of the Torah is written.
The Alter Rebbe went into a state of deveikus and then said that Adam HaRishshon was created by Hashem Himself. Hashem testifies that the wisdom of Adam HaRishon was greater than even the ministering angels. Adam HaRishon could name all the creations of Hashem. The name represents the lifeforce. Adam HaRishon could see the lifeforce and therefore reveal their names. The angels were not able to give names while Adam could therefore we see that his wisdom was even greater than the angels.
Because of all of this Adam HaRishon knew of his own greatness and that greatness was important to him. This led to the downfall of the sin of the tree of good and evil.
Moshe Rabbenu also realized his own greatness but reacted differently. He responded with humility. Moshe Rabbenu celebrated the greatness but didn’t attribute it to himself. On the contrary it made him feel contrite even broken hearted. When Moshe Rabbenu looked upon all of the wondrous qualities with which He was endowed such as being the son of Amram, the seventh generation from Avraham Avinu etc, he felt that they were not created by Him rather a gift from Hashem. However the question was if He had utilized them to their fullest and in the best way. With a humility that transcended anyone else Moshe Rabbenu concluded that if someone would have been so greatly endowed as Himself he would have certainly done far more and far better than He with these gifts.
The Alter Rebbe went further in explaining to the Tzemach Tzedek in saying that the Torah contains small, medium and large size letters. The Torah is usually written with medium letters and with occasional small and large letters. The reason that the Torah is usually written with medium letters is because the Torah is meant for the average person. With the help of the Torah one can become a benoni. Because Adam HaRishon knew of his own greatness and this led to the downfall of the sin of the tree of good and evil, His name in Direi HaYamim is written with a large aleph. Since Moshe Rabbenu was the most humble of all men, when Hashem called out to Him the aleph of Vayika is written small.
The Rebbe explains the lesson relevant to us from this story. Although the Tzemach Tzedek had not yet studied about the large aleph of Adam HaRishon in Divrei HaYamim, the Alter Rebbe was educating the Tzemach Tzedek with the awareness that the Tzemach Tzedek was destined to be a Rebbe. Every one of us has a spark of Adam HaRishon within and needs to realize our spark of greatness. Nevertheless even if we realize the greatness that we have, especially a leader who needs that greatness in an even larger measure, at the same time we need the humility of Moshe Rabbenu. Just as Moshe Rabbenu realized that not only that every good quality He had was a gift but that if others would have them they would surpass His accomplishments.
Every one of us needs to know that we have a great and powerful neshama which is a portion of Hashem mamash. Especially when it comes to doing a mitzvah or anything good or important we should never make ourselves small as if we cannot accomplish great things. We need to tell ourselves that we have the power of Adam HaRishon on the level before the sin. It doesn’t matter what happened an hour ago or an hour from now. We should be focused on this present moment and the empowerment of Adam HaRishon. At that very same moment we need to realize that with all the greatness we have been gifted by Hashem here and now, we didn’t work for these good qualities and we aren’t better than others in any way either in learning or in good character. On the contrary others would do far better. This awareness reveals the spark of humility of Moshe Rabbenu which we have.
By strengthening in not being ashamed or fooled into inaction by the Yetzer Hara, and also by being humble and not boasting about our accomplishments we will merit to be successful in all areas and merit the geula shleima.
A Good Shabbos