Humility Awakens the Merit of the Avos

1The same Midrash (Shemos Rabbah, Yisro) says on “And Moshe went up to God” [Shemos 19:3]: “Moshe went up in a cloud and came down in a cloud; the merit of the Avos stood by him.” The cloud here is like the one in the verse “You have wrapped Yourself in a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through” (Eichah 3:44): something that separates and conceals. Moshe Rabbeinu was extremely humble, as the holy Torah testifies: “The man Moshe was very humble, more than any person on the face of the earth” [Bamidbar 12:3]. Since he was lowly in his own eyes, he regarded his ascents as being “in a cloud.” He had nothing of his own, and a cloud still separated him from our Father in Heaven. That is why he “went up in a cloud and came down in a cloud”: he stood there only through the merit of his fathers. By the power of his humility, he awakened the merit of the Avos, because his ways touched theirs. Their trait, too, was humility, as the holy Torah says of Avraham, “I am dust and ashes” [Bereishis 18:27] (see the Mechilta, Beshalach). As Chazal say, “‘I have raised up the lowly tree’ [Yechezkel 17:24]: this is Avraham” (Bereishis Rabbah 53:1). This is what the merit of the Avos means.

2That is why the merit of the Avos does not apply to the nations of the world. They do not take hold of the ways of the Avos, since they do not humble themselves. As Chazal say on “Not because you are more numerous … for you are the fewest” [Devarim 7:7]: “Because you make yourselves small, unlike Pharaoh, Nevuchadnetzar and Chiram” (Chullin 89a). A Jew looks to the rock from which he was hewn, the root of his stock [cf. Yeshayahu 51:1–2]. He sees that he comes from our holy fathers, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, while he himself is lowly, lacking and contemptible. He has fallen “from a high roof into a deep pit” [Chagigah 5b], soiled with sins. He is deeply ashamed, and his heart breaks into pieces. That humility, broken heart and shame are the marks of the quarry of our holy fathers' seed. By their power he awakens the merit of the holy Avos, who humbled and lowered themselves, as we said above.

3This is what Chazal tell (Berachos 16b): “After finishing his prayer, R' Zeira would say: May it be Your will that we not sin, and not be shamed or disgraced before our fathers.” For the son of a tzaddik who rebelled against his fathers, who were holy and pure and served Hashem in holiness, purity and awe, the disgrace and shame are surely far greater than for the son of a simple man. That is “that we not be disgraced before our fathers.” But when a person reflects on his fathers' holiness while he stands on a low level, remembers the great distance between him and them, and is very deeply ashamed, then through his humility and intense shame he merits to draw his fathers' holiness upon himself.