[Avodah] Don't take credit for your talents

[Micha Berger]

>From this week's issue of Hamaayan (sent out by torah.org)
<http://www.torah.org/learning/hamaayan/5772/chukas.html>.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

Hamaayan
by Shlomo Katz

Parshas Chukas
Deep Waters
Volume 26, No. 35
10 Tammuz 5772
June 30, 2012

Sponsored by Martin and Michelle Swartz on the thirtieth yahrzeit of
Martin's grandfather John Hofmann a"h (12 Tammuz)

Today's Learning:
Tanach: Tehilim 125-126
Mishnah: Yevamot 15:8-9
Daf Yomi (Bavli): Niddah 40
Daf Yomi (Yerushalmi): Yevamot 29
Halachah Yomit: Orach Chaim 75:1-3
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			     Letters from our Sages

The following letter was written by R Shlomo Wolbe zl (a leading teacher
of mussar in the last 50 years; died 2005) to his grandson. It appears
in the pamphlet Igrot Uketavim, published on the occasion of R Wolbe's
shloshim.

To my beloved... peace and a blessing!

R Yisrael Salanter, may his merit protect us [founder of the mussar
movement and a brilliant scholar] said, I know that my head is equal
to that of a thousand men; this merely obligates me to do the work of
a thousand men.

We learn from this that one is obligated to recognize the strengths and
talents that G-d has given him. One certainly did not receive these for
nothing, only in order to use them to serve his Creator through Torah
and through sanctifying His Name in the world.

To be full of pride over ones talents makes no sense, for we did not
give ourselves these talents. The reason that G-d did not give everyone
the same talents is that not everyone has the same task. If one takes
pride in his talents, it is a sign that he does not believe that G-d
gave them to him. In so doing, he is taking pride in G-ds garment,
as the verse says (Tehilim 93:1), Hashem donned grandeur.

Grandeur [which shares a root in Hebrew with pride] belongs only to the
Creator, not to the created.

When a person does recognize his talents, he needs to know that he is
obligated to exhaust them for the sake of Torah and service of G-d. Who
can believe that he is fulfilling his obligation? Everyone is obligated
to do infinitely more than he is doing, using whatever talents he has.
... Indeed, in contrast to a multi-talented individual, one who is not
talented but works hard to understand and know [the Torah] is using
his talents. A talented individual should feel shame, not pride, in the
presence [of a person whose talents are limited]....

With love,
Grandpa Shlomo
  __________________________________________________________________

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