בן עזאי וחסדא פליגי חד אמר איתי דכא וחד אמר אני את דכא.
They both agree what the pasuk is clearly expressing, the idea that Hakadosh Baruch Hu, as it were, is shochen, resides with the person who is daka ushfal ruach, lowly in spirit, sort of how Hakadosh Baruch Hu effect that rendezvous, whether it's that he elevates the daka ushfal ruach or that he lowers himself, whatever each of those metaphors is intended to express. But either way that Hakadosh Baruch Hu should be shochen with one hinges upon shiflus haruach. Conversely אמר רב חסדא ואיתימא מר עוקבא כל אדם שיש בו גסות הרוח אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא אין אני והוא יכולין לדור בעולם.
Hakadosh Baruch Hu says I can't coexist kavyachol in the world with the person who has gasus haruach. Let's try to understand one perspective, not the only perspective, but one perspective on this centrality and indispensability of shiflus. We find it also Rav Chaim Volozhin explains in the perush in Pirkei Avos משה קיבל תורה מסיני ומסרה ליהושע ויהושע לזקנים that every link in the shalsheles hamesorah is characterized by and even more accurately, more importantly, defined by and qualified for their respective place in the shalsheles hamesorah because of their anivus. משה קיבל תורה מסיני because האיש משה ענו מאד מכל האדם אשר על פני האדמה.
Yehoshua was the next link in the chain because he too was מצטיין במידת השפלות במידת הענווה. The same question as to the centrality and indispensability of shiflus begs a story from the Gemorah that you're all familiar with at the end of Perek Ein Omdin. שוב מעשה ברבי חנינא בן דוסא שהלך ללמוד תורה אצל רבי יוחנן בן זכאי וחלה בנו של רבי יוחנן בן זכאי. אמר לו חנינא בני בקש עליו רחמים.
Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai asks his talmid Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa to be mispallel for his Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai's son who's critically ill. בקש עליו רחמים ויחיה. הניח ראשו בין ברכיו וביקש עליו רחמים וחיה.
Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa davens and Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai's son recovers. אמר רבי יוחנן בן זכאי אלמלא הטיח בן זכאי ראשו בין ברכיו כל היום כולו לא היו משגיחין עליו.
I could have davened all day long, I wouldn't have been able to achieve that result. אמרה לו אשתו וכי חנינא גדול ממך? You're the Rebbe, he's the talmid, what is he greater than you? אמר לה לא אלא הוא דומה כעבד לפני המלך ואני דומה כשר לפני המלך.
What exactly did Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai answer his wife? There's a very very beautiful explanation of this Gemorah given by the Meor Einayim. Meor Einayim explains we find that the koach hatfilah... The name Yaakov represents and signifies lashon akev, signifies shiflus. The posuk describes how Rivka takes בגדי עשו בנה הגדול ותלבש את יעקב בנה הקטן. Yaakov Avinu's middah, what Yaakov Avinu represents, what his very name signifies is shiflus. So here too we see that it's hakol kol Yaakov, that the koach of tefillah is linked to the shiflus that Klal Yisrael feels before Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So what's the peshat? So the Me'or Einayim explains, and again, not to imply that the ideas are only to be found in the Me'or Einayim, they're very basic and core ideas and concepts. When Hakadosh Baruch Hu sends beracha to the world, to us, so that beracha has to be contracted. That beracha has to be minimized because otherwise we don't have the keilim to be able to receive or even withstand the beracha. The mashal is to the light of the sun. On the one hand, without the light and warmth of the sun, so there would be no life. On the other hand, we can't look directly at the sun because it's too bright, it'll damage the eyes. When Klal Yisrael say to Moshe Rabbeinu, דבר אתה עמנו ונשמעה ואל ידבר עמנו אלהים פן נמות
expresses this idea that we don't have the keilim unless Hakadosh Baruch Hu is metzamtzem His beracha, so we don't have the keilim to be able to receive, process, assimilate, even be able to withstand the beracha. So as it were, there's a process of shiflus, there's a parallel, symmetrical notion of shiflus or tzimtzum that has to happen in terms of beracha in response to our tefillah. The Nefesh Hachaim quotes, Baal Shem Tov quotes as well, the Midrash on the posuk of Ehyeh asher Ehyeh relates to what Dovid Hamelech says in Tehillim, ה' צלך על יד ימינך. What does it mean Hakadosh Baruch Hu is your shadow? So your shadow takes its cue from you. Whatever you do, your shadow does. You extend your left arm, so that's what your shadow does. And you kick your right foot, so that's what your shadow does. Your shadow takes its cue from you. So too Hakadosh Baruch Hu says that He takes His cue from us. במדה שאדם מודד מודדין לו. That's what's also reflected in what Chazal tell us, כל מדותיו של הקדוש ברוך הוא מדה כנגד מדה. Hakadosh Baruch Hu, as it were, takes His cue from us. So the Me'or Einayim explains so, so beautifully. Hakadosh Baruch Hu, to give us beracha that we can receive, He has to minimize that beracha. He has to be metzamtzem that beracha. Hashem tzilcha. That only happens in response to our shiflus. When a person is mashpil atzmo, so then that invites, that elicits, that response from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Moray'nayim says what רבן יוחנן בן זכאי self-deprecatingly was saying, like this you learn in the Gemara, it seems like by רבן יוחנן בן זכאי, he says, and he's an eved, but for whatever reason Moray'nayim says no, Chanina ben Dosa's koach hatfillah is because he's mashpil himself, he's an eved. And what's an eved before an adon is nothing. An eved before an adon is the ultimate state of shiflus. משה קיבל תורה מסיני ומסרה ליהושע. So what, what do we speak euphemistically? Why not Moshe kibel Torah from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, mipih hagevurah? Why kibel Torah MiSinai? So we're all familiar, it's the same Gemara here in Sotah: הניח הקדוש ברוך הוא כל הרים וגבעות והשרה שכינתו על הר סיני.
Hakadosh Baruch Hu bypassed Mount Everest and all the other natural contenders and chose Har Sinai. A little bit of the omek what it means is as follows: באמת חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא is totally inaccessible, incomprehensible, unintelligible beyond. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is infinite, His chochmah is infinite. We have no keilim to be masig anything. Hakadosh Baruch Hu created the Torah, He created chochmah elokis that we can b’siyata d’shmaya understand, that we can b’siyata d’shmaya comprehend. משה קיבל תורה מסיני means the middah and the bechina of Har Sinai is what allows for the kabbalas haTorah. It's not just identifying a geographical location. That same indispensable act of contracting, of contraction, of tzimtzum is necessary in Torah also. How can, how can a person be masig anything, even a kotzo shel yud of chochmah elokis, of elokus? Only when Hakadosh Baruch Hu makes a human version, a humanly accessible, intelligible version of chochmah is it accessible to us. That's what it means הניח כל הרים וגבעות שבעולם והשרה שכינתו על הר סיני.
That bechina of Har Sinai is what allows for matan Torah, for kabbalas haTorah. So veiter, veiter you understand what the Nefesh Hachaim explains that it was בזכות בכוחו של האיש משה ענוו מאוד מכל האדם אשר על פני האדמה
that he was mekabel Torah because again, Hashem tzilcha. elokis to be packaged in a way that even the בכיר מן האנושי can can be tofes. It requires a bechina of Sinai, it also requires a contraction of brocha. And that happens in response to shiflus. The famous Midrash in Parshas Terumah, ועשו ארון עצי שטים. Midrash kotev ha-pasuk mi-Iyov, שדי לא מצאנוהו שגיא כח. Say Chazal, מי ששומע הפסוק הזה אומר שמא חילופים הוא? Sounds like it's rachmana litzlan devi chilufim v'gidufim. But we don't, sagi is lashon gadol koach. But we don't find that Hakadosh Baruch Hu should be great in strength? How can you say such a thing? שמא דברי חילופים הוא? Chas v'shalom. אלא כך אמר אליהו, לא מצינו כח בוראו של הקדוש ברוך הוא עם בריותיו.
When Hakadosh Baruch Hu interacts with his creations, we don't find the expression a reflection of his real koach u-gevura. שאין הקדוש ברוך הוא בא בטרחות עם בריותיו, לא בא על האדם אלא לפי כחו.
Hakadosh Baruch Hu limits, Hakadosh Baruch Hu modulates according to the koach ha-adam to receive. אתה מוצא שנתן הקדוש ברוך הוא את התורה לישראל, אילו היה בא עליהם בחזק כחו לא היו יכולים לעמוד,
she-ne'emar אם יוספים אנחנו לשמוע u-masnu. אלא לא בא עליהם אלא לפי כחם, שנאמר קול ה' בכח.
B'kocho eino omer. Doesn't say the kol Hashem b'kocho, capital H, his koach, ela b'koach, לפי כחו של כל אחד ואחד. Davar acher, שדי לא מצאנוהו שגיא כח. בשעה שאמר הקדוש ברוך הוא למשה עשה לי משכן.
Hakadosh Baruch Hu said to Moshe, build me a house, a residential quarters. Hitchil masmia v'omer כבודו של הקדוש ברוך הוא מלא עליונים ותחתונים והוא אומר עשה לי משכן?
Moshe Rabbeinu couldn't process it. What do you mean עשה לי עשה לי משכן? V'od hayah mistakel, Moshe Rabbeinu was looking b'ruach hakodesh, בשעה שלמה עומד ובונה בית המקדש וגדול מן המשכן ואמר לפני הקדוש ברוך הוא כי האמנם ישב אלקים על הארץ?
Shlomo HaMelech said what this house, this Beis Hamikdash as grand as it is, as gonna contain Hakadosh Baruch Hu? ומה בית המקדש שהוא יותר ויותר מן המשכן Shlomo omer kein, משכן על אחת כמה וכמה. Skipping a few lines, אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu answers Moshe Rabbeinu, לא כשם שאתה סובר כך אני סובר. I don't think the way you think, Moshe Rabbeinu. אלא כ' קרשים בצפון, you'll have 20 boards in the north, v'chaf badarom, v'ches bama'arav, v'lo od, אלא שארד ואצמצם שכינתי בתוך אמה על אמה. Exactly the idea that we're talking about. Without shiflus there's no tefillah, there's no Torah, there's no hasharas ha-shechina. Kemiduma. That in every age, in every tekufah, shiftlos is an avodah. We're all naturally self-centered, and that self-centeredness promotes, easily translates in a way that isn't consistent, certainly not entirely consistent with shiftlos. A person is naturally self-centered in an inescapable way. One's notion of what's history and what's future and what's more or less present is defined by one's lifespan. Events that a person lives through, he doesn't associate with history books. Events that happened before a person was born, he associates with history books. A person is inescapably self-centered to a degree and on a certain level. The Rambam's comment, the Torah says V'ahavta l'reiacha kamocha, didn't say Es reiacha kamocha, it says L'reiacha kamocha, it's impossible. A person's self-love is not going to be equaled by his love for others. So kimedumeh shiftlos is always an avodah, always an avodah. But in our age, it's an even greater avodah. The world we live in, the society that surrounds us, and from which we unwittingly allow ourselves to absorb so much, is a very arrogant and gaivahdike society. You know we learn Chumash about Migdal Bavel, and how the people began to band together, and V'naaseh lanu shem and Chazal explain that they're waging war against Aibishter. So we don't so much relate to that. But when a society looks to overturn the Torah's canons of morality and moral behavior, which for thousands of years were accepted not only in Jewish society but in general and Gentile society, it's a bechinah of Migdal Bavel. It's no less primitive and no less brazen and no different than Migdal Bavel. And it comes from arrogance. The engine that drives it, the fuel that fuels it is arrogance. So obviously, obviously Baruch Hashem we're not infected by that, but it's melamed on. Pervasive, pervasive defining trait. Modern society is a very, very arrogant society. And it makes for us, so for someone who aspires to try to be a Ben Torah, to try to be an Oveid Hashem, it accentuates and magnifies the need to work, to constantly try to instill and deepen and intensify and reinforce the middah of shiflus.