The Chozeh of Lublin had a great student named Rav Ahron Moshe. After the Chozeh passed away, Rav Ahron Moshe moved to Eretz Yisroel and started a Beis Medrash there. One of the avreichim who learned by him once knocked on his door, looking for chizuk. He explained that he had moved to Eretz Yisroel a few years earlier. It had taken tremendous mesiras nefesh for him to make the move, but he had done so with deep yearnings for the spiritual bounty of the Holy Land.
So what was the problem? The problem was that he did not see himself growing spiritually, and he did not feel the kedusha of Eretz Yisroel the way he had hoped he would. The student felt very let down and disappointed in himself. He did not understand what he had done wrong or why he was not gaining spiritually from being in Eretz Yisroel.
Rav Ahron Moshe gave him some chizuk, but he did not really have an answer as to why this was happening. The next day, the student heard a knock on his door and was surprised to see his Rebbi standing there.
Rav Ahron Moshe said, “Yesterday, I did not have an answer to your question. But last night, the Chozeh came to me in a dream and shared the following idea. It is the answer to your question, so I came to share it with you.
There are two places where something is described as ‘me’od me’od’ — ’very, very.’ By the story of the meraglim, after Yehoshua and Kalev rejected the report of the spies, they described Eretz Yisroel as tovah ha’aretz me’od me’od — ‘the land is very, very good.’ The second place is in Pirkei Avos, where it says, me’od me’od hevei shefal ruach — ‘Be very, very humble.’
The Chozeh explained that this is not a coincidence. The land is very, very good, and a person should be very, very humble. There is a very strong connection between humility and Eretz Yisroel. In order for a Yid to taste the sweetness and goodness of the land, and for the land to influence and propel him to great heights in avodas Hashem, he needs to live by the Mishnah in Pirkei Avos and live with humility. The more one can improve in humility, the more of the goodness of the land he will experience.”
He could not understand why he wasn’t growing from the kedusha of Eretz Yisroel.
Take It To Go!
To be humble does not mean not believing in yourself or not knowing who you are. Humility means recognizing that all your successes and accomplishments are gifts from Hashem. This gives a person the strength to accomplish even more, not out of haughtiness but out of humility. The more we can be humble before other Yidden and humble before Hashem, the more we will gain from the great ohr of Eretz Yisroel.
We should all be zoche to be in Eretz Yisroel physically, but even if we are not yet there, we can still be zoche to benefit from its great light.
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 91.