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From So Far - Until So Close

It's hard to be humble, when you're as great as I am.

Muhammad Ali

The true way to be humble is not to stoop until you are smaller than yourself, but to stand at your real height against some higher nature that will show you what the real smallness of your greatness is.

Phillips Brooks



What does a person do if he feels no desire to serve Hashem? He's just not interested. He IS interested in a girl [or two], pizza, ice cream, the Yankees and sleep. But learning, davening, kedusha, tahara - he's just not in the mood!

Well, if the person is asking the question that is a GREAT sign! He realizes that he is spiritually ill. That is the first step to health. If he ISN'T asking that is a danger sign. You can't get better if you don't know that you need medicine.

So what should he do??

CRY!! He must admit to Hashem that he is sooooo low and that he wants to FEEL it again. This admission of "lowness" and expression of humilty will arouse heavenly mercy. That is what Dovid Hamelech meant when he said [Tehillim 10/17] "The desire of the humble you have heard, guide their heart, let your ear listen" - or in the original תאות ענוים שמעת ה' תכין לבם תקשיב אזנך

G-d loves the humble whereas the haughty leave an unbearable stench!

The realization of ones smallness will elevate one to great heights.

[See Tzidkas Hatzaddik 135]

Love and blessings!


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Segula - 40 days at the Kotel

About me

  • I'm Rabbi Ally Ehrman
  • From Old City Jerusalem, Israel
  • I am a Rebbe in Yeshivat Netiv Aryeh.
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