Jewish Inspiration Podcast · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

00:00 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, welcome back to day number 18. We're on page 84 in the Treasure for Life version of the Orchos Tzaddikim, second to bottom line. A person who is afflicted with this negative trait of haughtiness, of arrogance, has to exert himself and retract himself from it, for it is a bad defect in a person. Ki hu miguna mi'od ve'ahezek sh'lo rav umat su'itamid. And that it's a terrible, terrible trait and its potential harm is severe and the benefit of all arrogance is really null. A person needs to be very, very, very distant from this negative trait. Arrogance brings a person to be completely broken. As the verse states, haughtiness goes before destruction. And also that arrogance will bring a person to lowliness. Shemem ha'agavas adam tishpilenu. The arrogance will bring a person to lowliness. The arrogance will lead a person to lower himself at the end. We know what happened to Pharaoh, where Pharaoh arrogantly said who's God that I should listen to his voice. To Goliath, the Philistine, haplishti she amar, ani cheirafdi es ma'arachos Yisrael, I have disgraced the armies of Israel, o Sanheriv she amar. And to Sanheriv who said mi b'chol elokeh ha'arotso so'el asher hitsilu es artso miyodi, who, among the gods of all these lands, rescued their lands from my hand. Or, like Nebuchadnezzar, who he said. Who said and who is the God who will deliver you from my hands and all these and many others who said similar things? And their end was shame and disgrace. And someone who's lost in this negative trait is not going to be saved from sin and transgression. Like King Solomon says, the proud scorner is called a mocker. He acts in the fury of malice. Page 87 on top, we continue. The author says v'kevan sh'hi gi'u dvoreinu adhena.

03:19
Now that we have reached this point of our conversation on haughtiness, l'daber alagava arrogance. Sh'ma divrei chachamim. Listen to the words of the wise Chacham echad omer. One wise says mi hu asher, lo tipored mimeno ha'da'aga. One sage says who is he from whom worry will never depart? We know that everyone has an element of worry. Hamevakesh lalos elamalos shehi lemalahimeno. Who's the person? Know that everyone has an element of worry. Who's the person, whom is he from whom worry will never depart? One who seeks a stature that is above him? And whoever holds himself as being a knower, someone who knows everything? He thinks he's very wise, he thinks he's so wise, but everybody else knows that he's foolish.

04:27
Ve'amru samuch lagava ma'alolim raim. One who hold next to haughtiness are bad deeds. That's right next door, u'mishi yesh bo, ma'alolim raim. And one whose deeds are bad is always hated by others and people will turn away from him. Masmedes, oso, sinas, abrios v'anifoshos, notos me'alov, v'omar hocham echad.

04:58
And another wise man said k'asher ni'imus hatzura or haguf, just as pleasantness of countenance, of a smile, is the light of the body, so pleasantness of character is the light of the soul. Kach n'imus ha-midos or ha-nefesh Ve'amru'od. So which one is better, to be arrogant and hated ultimately at the end, or to be pleasant and kind? Then everyone loves you. Ve'amru'od. Ein mei chashivus. Ha-nefesh shi-yeh ha-melech me-izgo'eh al-bnei adam. It is not dignified for a king to lord himself over other men. Kol shekein bnei adam. How much more so for mankind for one man to be arrogant over another person. Adam acherem, zeh al-zeh or different people. Oh, I'm so successful, I'm so much better than him, I'm so much wealthier than him. That's really. It's repugnant and repulsive.

06:03
The Omar there was a king who was sitting on his throne and in front of him were three chairs. There was a king who was sitting on his throne and in front of him were three chairs, one on top of the other. And to place each person according to their ranking, three mighty people came in front of the king and one sat on top of the other and the king said to them how did you guys sit one on top of the other without my permission? In the top one, he says he says my family ancestry is greater than the other guys, so that's why I sat on the highest. The second one says Because I'm wiser than the guy beneath me, I sat above him. The third one said the third one said he says he elevated him above all the others. And this it says Come up, for it is better that it be said to you come up here than that you be lowered before the prince.

07:49
Be'eis sh'ro'odim sh'midas ha'gavom, misgaber esolav. When a person sees that the trait of arrogance is overtaking him tzarech lachshov, devarim ha'mafilim eslibon he has to think of things that frighten his heart. For example, like the Mishnah tells us to always remember that we come from a man comes from a putrid drop, that he will return to dust and his end will be worms and maggots and ultimately we're going to give our accounting in front of the King of Kings. The Holy One. Blessed is he. And he should think to himself. He should think of how many Hori men have vanished from this world and they've been forgotten. He should think of how many Hori men have vanished from this world and they've been forgotten from this world as if they never were, and what benefit was their arrogance?

08:56
It's so important for a person to realize that Hashem is the creator of heaven and earth. Hashem is the one who brought us into this world and Hashem is the creator of heaven and earth. Hashem is the one who brought us into this world and Hashem is the one who gives us everything that we have. Who are we to be haughty over other people? Who are we to be arrogant over another person? The other people were gifted by Hashem as well, in different ways. So you're taking the one way in which you have a specialty and thinking you're better than someone else, when it doesn't even belong to you. That specialty is a gift from Hashem. This concludes day number 18,. My dear friends, I look forward to continuing day 19.