Why Humility Changes Everything: A Jewish Perspective

I will posit a theory, okay? And my theory is that when you really learn what humility is, nothing short of miraculous, almost like different doors open up of wisdom and you really start to feel some guidance.

And can I prove it? I mean, can you prove anything spiritually using tools that don't fit? Like if I was, I don't know, doing chemistry, could I measure the results with the ruler? Probably not.

It's kind of like if I try to use my mind to prove something that is above and beyond that, I'm using the wrong metric system, the wrong tool.

And I just don't think there's any way to prove anything godly.

It's like...

You gave us the mind and the knowledge and the limits of our knowledge and logic.

And therefore, it's not below the head or mind to feel something bigger, but I would say it's above.

Yeah, it's not being naive or hopeful.

I think it's actually going to a deeper sense of what you feel to be truth.

And that's kind of where I want to go today.

As an intro, I will say that the Rambam in Mishnah Torah talks about different sorts of character traits and how we should always be in the middle path, the emtai, the path that is the golden rule, which is always you don't want to go too extreme, which I love.

I'm all about balance.

However, when it comes to humility, over there, interestingly enough, the Rambam says, no, over there, go extreme.

Be extremely humble.

That's the one mita where you can go totally to the other side.

And what is humility then? Can you go too far? What is humility? Or not, or not.

And I think that the answer would lie in the idea that there is a huge misconception of what humility is.

So before we dig into what it is, let me just describe what it is not.

Humility is not self-deprecating humor.

So people assure you that you are in fact funny, the best, smart, pretty, lovable.

Okay.

Humility is not being a doormat and giving in for the sake of, and we'll get into why someone might want to do that.

Humility isn't insecurity.

It's not a lack of confidence and it's not giving up because you don't have the skillset.

That's what humility isn't.