Lowly Origins: The Key to Receiving the Torah

1These are the words of my father and teacher, R' Yechiel of Alexander, zt"l, on the Midrash (Shemos Rabbah 28:1): “When Moshe went up on high, the ministering angels wanted to harm him. The Holy One, blessed be He, made Moshe's features resemble Avraham's and said to them: ‘Aren't you ashamed before him? Isn't this the one whose house you came down to, and at whose table you ate?’” The Midrash there is worth reading in full.

2This is what it means. With these words Hashem gave the angels an answer they could not refute: the Torah is fit to be given only to Israel, not to them. The Torah belongs with people of good character, whose middos suit the Torah. You angels do not have such middos; Israel does. When you came down to Avraham's house, he welcomed you warmly and gave you food, with all the cheer and joy that true hospitality calls for. But when a human being came up on high to you, you were jealous of him and wanted to harm him. That shows you lack the middos the Torah requires. So the Torah is not for you, and you have no share in it. Those were his holy words.

3aHis holy words can be explained more fully. The Gemara tells the story in a different version (Shabbos 88b). The angels asked, “What is one born of woman doing among us?” Moshe was afraid, and Hashem told him, “Take hold of My Throne of Glory and give them an answer.” At once he answered them, as the Gemara relates there. To understand this, we turn to what the Midrash Shmuel says on the Mishnah of Akavya ben Mahalalel (Avos 3:1). The Mishnah first says, “Know where you came from, where you are going, and before Whom you will one day give judgment and accounting.” Then it explains: “Where you came from: a putrid drop. Where you are going: a place of dust, worms and maggots. Before Whom you will give judgment and accounting: before the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He.” Why does the Mishnah say it twice? The second part already spells out all three things.

3bThe Midrash Shmuel answers that the holy Tanna is teaching two separate approaches in serving Hashem. The first is for when the yetzer hara wants to throw a person into the pit of sadness, since a fallen, despondent person is easy for it to take. It tells him, “Who are you to enter the King's palace with Torah and mitzvos? You are full of sins and transgressions. What is your Torah and your avodah worth?” as if, Heaven forbid, there were almost no hope for him. Then answer it with the first part: “Where did you come from?” From the Infinite above, for the Hebrew me'ayin, “from where,” also reads “from Ayin,” Hashem's hidden Nothingness. Your soul is hewn from the Throne of Glory; you are “a portion of God above” [Iyov 31:2]. “Where are you going?” To the place of the angels and the seraphim, to the World of Truth. “And before Whom will you give judgment?” Before the King Himself. But if, Heaven forbid, the yetzer hara wants to show you “the glory of your wealth” and the greatness of your deeds in Torah and mitzvos, and to convince you that you are a man of high stature, then “answer a fool according to his folly” [Mishlei 26:5]. Tell it the second part of the Mishnah: “Where did you come from? A putrid drop.”

4aIn truth, each of these depends on the other. If a person remembers that he came from a putrid drop, his awe of Hashem is always before him. That in turn lets him remember that he is hewn from the Throne of Glory, as the Ramban explains in his Iggeres. Through this his soul is truly bound and attached to its source, the part to the whole. It is different if, Heaven forbid, he forgets this, always sees himself in the right and walks about in haughtiness and arrogance. Then he is one of those of whom Hashem says, “I and he cannot dwell together in the world” (Sotah 5a). He pushes away the Shechinah, as it were, and distances himself from his root. Being far from the source from which he was hewn, he can no longer remember it. So the first part of the Mishnah depends on the second.

4bThat is what Hashem meant when He told Moshe Rabbeinu, “Take hold of My Throne of Glory and give them an answer.” The very flaw the angels pointed out, that you are born of woman, is your answer to them. It is lowly that man is created from a putrid drop, yet this flaw is a virtue, for it brings him to true lowliness and self-nullification. Then he can remember the Throne of Glory and take hold of it, recalling the first part of the Mishnah: that we are hewn from Hashem's Throne of Glory. In truth, we can merit the holy Torah only through humility and lowliness. As we pray, “Let my soul be like dust to everyone,” and through this, “open my heart to Your Torah, and let my soul pursue Your mitzvos” (Berachos 17a). Self-nullification, humility and lowliness also make a person able to love his fellow. He sees good qualities in him and recognizes where the other is greater than he is. And this is the essence of the whole Torah, as Hillel and R' Akiva taught: “Love your fellow as yourself” [Vayikra 19:18] is a great principle of the Torah (Shabbos 31a; Toras Kohanim, Kedoshim).

5The angels are indeed of very high stature, for Hashem made them with His own hands. But because of that very virtue, they cannot reach this self-nullification. They have no putrid drop to remember, and without it they cannot receive the holy Torah. This is what Moshe meant when he asked them, “Is there a yetzer hara among you?” (Shabbos 88b). A Jew comes to humility and lowliness by remembering that he was not only created from a putrid drop, but conceived in sin and with a yetzer hara, as David HaMelech said: “Behold, I was formed in iniquity” (Tehillim 51:7). All this leaves his heart “broken and crushed” [Tehillim 51:19], and he becomes truly like dust. Because of that, he greets everyone warmly and welcomes guests. Avraham Avinu is called “My beloved” (Yeshayahu 41:8)¹ because he loved every person, even the uncircumcised, since they too are Hashem's handiwork; whoever loves the Maker loves what He has made. One who lacks this self-nullification cannot do so. This, then, is the Midrash as my father and teacher explained it: the Torah belongs only to Israel, who have the middos and the preparation the Torah requires, without which it cannot be received. And these, the angels did not have. Think this through carefully. (From the author's handwritten manuscript.)