Tehillim on the Parsha: Ki Tisa: God’s Humility II

“Your humility made me great.” (Psalm 18:36) The custom of the world, of a king of flesh and blood, is that as long as his citizens live in peace with him, he will provide for them, he will protect them, he will care for them. However, if they were to rebel against him, he would feel no obligation to them. He would cease to protect them. He would fight them. He would no longer feed them, he would deprive them of their basic needs.

However the Holy One, Blessed is He, does not act in such a way. Even when His subjects work and anger Him below, even as He is busy above preparing to give them the Torah which is filled with life, He continues to provide for them. He fed them mana even as they sinned. He gave them the Torah even after they sinned. (Shemot Rabbah 41:4)

This is God’s great humility. This is why the verse says: “When He finished speaking to him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the Two Tablets of Testimony, stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God.” (Exodus 31:18) Moses was the most humble of men. God, the Humble, gave the Torah to Moses, the humble, to teach us that it was humility that gave us the Torah despite our mistakes. It is with humility that we can fully access God’s Torah of Life no matter how many mistakes we may have made.

It is worthwhile to meditate on God’s Humility, and the importance of our acting with humility, before beginning to study God’s Torah of Life.