Parshas BeHa'alosecha

Now on to the weekly sidra, Parshas BeHa'alosecha, which literally means "in your rising up", but here in the Torah poetically describes the daily lighting of the Menorah in the Temple, to be performed (preferably) by the Aharon, and his successors to the position of Kohein Gadol (High Priest). While we can learn a great deal (from a very small portion, only three verses) from the topic of the lighting of the Menorah itself, I would like to focus on another very famous verse from this week's parsha which reads, "Now this man Moses was exceedingly humble, more so than any person on the face of the earth." When it comes to the trait of humility, many people mistakenly confuse humility with lowliness or even (less often) pitifulness or self-denigration. In truth, however, humility does not involve focusing on one's negative traits, but rather depends on how one views the positive traits that one DOES possess. Therefore, the first step to humility really begins when we recognize our strengths, and at this point, in general, we can view the strengths in three different ways. First, we could say that we have certain G-d given talents, that we have tried to make the best of, and maybe somebody else could have done even better than we have with those talents, so we really have no reason to feel so proud, or haughty, about these things. Second, and more humbly, we could say that while we truly have these talents, we never really did anything to actualize them, in fact we've done a lot to just let them waste away, and so with out any doubt another would have done much more with them than we did, so we should actually feel very thankful for all the success we have had with these talents. The third, and the highest level, of humility does not depend on how we view ourselves, but rather on what we do; to "perform" humility, so to speak. For example, it is said, about Hashem, "that where you find his greatness, you find his humility". We can understand this by looking at the case of a teacher and a student: although the teacher may possess great wisdom, far greater than the student, if he can not impart any of that wisdom to the student, than we should not really call him a "great" teacher. On the other hand, when the teacher takes his profound wisdom and makes it very simple, so that the student should understand, now we would call him a "great" teacher; because he "humbled" himself to see things from the perspective of the lowly student, instead of remaining in the lofty world of his own understanding. Unlike the first two types of humility, which require a great deal of introspection (and are, of course, also very meaningful), this third level in humility simply means sharing our talents, or advantages (material, spiritual, intellectual, etc), with those around us; sharing in the most literal sense of the word, that it should become accessible also to the recipient. When we do this we become more like Moses our Great Teacher, and in his merit, Hashem will surely bless us and come down, in his great humility, from his "lofty abode" to share with us happiness, health, and success.