Spiritual Tools-Finding Balance

The 5th of Nisan is the Yahrtzeit of Rav Avraham Yehoshua Heshel of Apt, the Ohev Yisrael. We find in Vayikra (14:4) that the Kohen was commanded to take for him that is to be cleansed two living clean birds, and cedar-wood, and scarlet, and hyssop. These are symbols, and teach us the following: he who wishes to become pure must raise his impulse towards goodness on high like the cedar tree; he must become lowly like the hyssop. He should, however, balance himself carefully between loftiness of mood and humility, drawing a line between the two, a scarlet line, over which he must not tread. (Menorat haTehorah, page 82)

Haggadah: Perhaps this is why we go back and forth between remembering slavery, suffering and poverty, and freedom, wealth, and power; we are finding the proper balance between humility and arrogance.