A moralist was widely celebrated for his great humility. So the Rabbi decided to pay him a visit; he wanted to see firsthand what the hubbub was about.
The Rabbi was taken with the man’s behavior; he seemed truly selfless and without ego. At the end of the day, the man humbly opened the door to allow the Rabbi to leave. As the Rabbi walked out, the man looked up and asked “so, are you impressed?”
Humility that is a public display of ‘selflessness’, driven by the hope of garnering praise and admiration, isn’t humility at all.
What is humility? Humility begins with the honest recognition of one’s strengths. When we acknowledge that G-d has endowed us with talents and strengths, and consider the responsibility attached to those gifts, we should be humbled.
Why? While we’re each ‘gifted’ with a ‘toolbox’ of [latent] skills, most of us never get near the positive potential of our talents, especially their capacity to help the world. Shouldn’t that be humbling?
Even more: The raw material – our basic inborn aptitude – is a gift. When we run with it, we can be proud of our effort and accomplishment. But the gift itself isn’t an authentic reason for pride. It is life’s gift; it’s not our doing.
To illustrate: Consider a high school student who has a natural facility for mathematics, and does very well on tests with minimal effort. Is there any legitimate reason for him to feel better than a fellow student who struggles with the subject, and works much harder to receive a lower grade?
To the contrary. Our gifted student would do well to recognize his natural good fortune, and recognize that inborn skills aren’t earned. He might even consider that his less-mathematically-endowed peer, given his effort, may very well have achieved more in personal growth and development, despite the lower grade score.
This helps to explain how Moses, perhaps the most gifted human to ever live, is also described as the most humble:
Moses was acutely self-aware. His introspection revealed an array of personal talents, and each of those talents was a call to action; every gift was a responsibility to the world.
Talents didn’t make him feel like a better person than the next guy. They made him – and they should make us – feel more motivated to achieve the potential that G-d has laid out for each of us.
Let’s get to work.
ב"ה