[Avodah] "Walking Modestly with Your G-d" (True Humility)

[Prof. L. Levine]

In the sefer Rav Schwab on Chumash there is what I consider a powerful commentary on Michah 6:8.  Since it is somewhat long,  I am going to send it out in 3 parts.

[Which I then put back into one long email. -micha]

ח  הִגִּיד לְךָ אָדָם, מַה-טּוֹב; וּמָה-יְהוָה דּוֹרֵשׁ מִמְּךָ, כִּי אִם-עֲשׂוֹת מִשְׁפָּט וְאַהֲבַת חֶסֶד, וְהַצְנֵעַ לֶכֶת, עִם-
אֱל-יךָ.

Haftarah for Balak: He has told you, 0 man, what is good, and what
Hashem seeks of you: only to do justice, to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your G-d. (Michah 6:8)

What is the meaning of "to walk humbly with your G-d?" How does it differ
from Hashem's directive to Avraham to "walk before Me"?

Hashem was telling Avraham Avinu that he should perfect himself
before Him as a Jew, starting with the mitzvah of bris milah. Michah, however, is
teaching us about the middah of modesty.

Michah is saying that we are to emulate Hashem by concealing our virtues and
good deeds from others. Hashem created everything and continues to keep all
things in existence; He is everywhere and does everything, yet He is concealed,
invisible, never to be seen. Only through His actions can we recognize His existence
and perceive some of His middos.

Michah implores us to cling to Hashem by walking along with Him, emulating
Him by concealing our good deeds and our essence, as Hashem does. By our modest
concealment, we become a partner with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Tznius, modesty,
requires not only the covering of one's body, but the concealing of one's maasim-his
deeds. This includes the level of holiness that one has attained.

The Ohel Moed was covered by layer upon layer of curtains. The wooden walls
were coated with gold, but neither they nor even the foundation sockets were visible
from the outside. Rashi states (Terumah 26:9) that the Mishkan looked like a kallah
tznuah, a modest bride, whose face is covered with a veil. The fact that the Mishkan
was so meticulously and completely covered teaches us that both physical and
spiritual beauty must be concealed from the public eye.

The Torah describes the intricacies and beauty of the Mishkan's vessels in great
detail, but these vessels were seen only by Aharon and his sons. The Aron, in the
Holy of Holies, was seen but once a year, on Yorn Kippur, and even then, only by
the kohen gadol. The rest of the nation saw only the outside curtains, made of black
goats' hair, that covered the Tabernacle. This highlights the paramount importance
of tznius, concealing physical beauty and spiritual beauty (holiness) "under wraps."


[Email #2. -micha]

More from Rav Schwab on Chumash on Michah 6:8

The more yiras Shamayim a person has, the less he shows it in public.
If a person brags about his yiras Shamayim, it is obviously flawed. This is
analogous to a thermos bottle which is warm on the outside-a sure sign
that it is broken on the inside. True yiras Shamayim is internal. The words
used by Yaakov Avinu in his final address to his son, Yosef Hatzaddik,
are: <https://www.chabad.org/library/bible cdo/aid/8244/jewish/Chapter-49.htm#v24> וַתֵּשֶׁב בְּאֵיתָi קַשְׁתּוֹ-His bow was firmly emplaced (Bereishis 49:24). This
is explained by Targum: He kept the Torah privately.
This is the essence of yiras Shamayim. It is a very private and personal
relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu.


[Email #3. -micha]

Below is the final part of Rav Schwab on Chumash on Michah 6:8.

Tznius, generally thought of as a lack of ostentation in material
matters, is no less important in spiritual matters. How does one "walk
with Hashem" inconspicuously? Hatznea leches, Rav Schwab explained,
requires that one's yiras Shamayim be something one has no need to show
off. For a person who truly walks with G-d, being in the public eye is no
reason to manifest one's devoutness. לְעוֹלָם יְהֵא אָדָם יְרֵא שָׁמַֽיִם בְּסֵֽתֶר וּבַגָּלוּי -One
must always fear C-d, in private and in public. The question is obvious:
One who does not fear G-d in private does not fear G-d at all. What does
it mean to fear G-d in private? True yiras Shamayim is between you and
G-d, and the more yiras Shamayim one has, the less others should be
aware of it. The Gemara tells us that the !shah Hashunamis (Shunamite
woman) knew that Elisha the Prophet was a holy man because, among
other private indications, flies did not settle on him. Couldn't she tell that
he was a kadosh by just looking at him and watching his behavior? The
answer is no, she couldn't. True kedushah, true yiras Shamayim, is not
readily apparent to the casual observer. One sees nothing extraordinary
about the true tzaddik. The Rav learned this, he said, from the Chafetz
Chaim. If one was zocheh, one could see the Shechinah on his visage,
but otherwise, he looked like a plain man dressed in the clothes of a
simple laborer, an ordinary cap pulled low over his forehead. The greater
the gadol, the more simple his comportment. Real kedushah is within; as
soon as it becomes manifested outwardly, it is diminished.
The Rav personified this in his daily life and in his davening, which
was without noise or fuss. The first pesukim of Krias Shema took him an
inordinate amount of time to recite. Only his family knew that he began
davening at home, much before he came to shul; when the congregation
was at Barchu, he was already holding by the second brachah of Krias
Shema. In his later years, or when illness prevented him from davening
with a minyan in shul, his tefillos at home were wrenching in their
intensity-but never when anyone was watching.

The Jewish Observer, summer 1995
"The lsh Ha'emes," by Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Klugman