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The archetype of humility was Moses. It is written in Torah: "And the man Moses was very meek" ... Moreover, observed the Talmudic Sages concerning the great teacher of Israel: "While wisdom wrought a crown for is head, humility made the sandals for his feet."

Perhaps twelve centuries after Moses, Hillel arose to serve for his people as the second human symbol of humility. When someone once rebuked him, charging that for one so exalted he was being too self-effacing, he replied ... "My humility is my exaltation."

When Hillel died, the pious of every generation strove to imitate him in humility. "Humble, like Hillel" became a figure of speech for Jewish folk.

However, Hillel did not stand alone in his striving after humility ... Humility was also prized as one of the character traits the wise man ... (the chacham, pl. chachamim) sought to develop in his quest for righteousness. A quaint but pithy catechism in the Talmud presents the relative value of humility in the moral life of man:

What is the ornament of man? ... The Torah.
What is the ornament of the Torah? ... Wisdom.
What is the ornament of Wisdom? ... Humility.
What is the ornament of Humility? ... Reverence for G-d.
What is the ornament for reverence for G-d? ... Good deeds.
What is the ornament for good deeds? ... Modesty in performing them.

"Any man who thinks himself superior to his fellow man is really inferior to him."

"If you have acquired much knowledge in the Torah, do not pride yourself because of it."

"Do not for get that G-d created the flea before He made man."

"Be humble, for the end of man is worms and maggots."

The Rabbinical teachers of ethics also spun their nets of persuasion over the folk mind by means of allegories and fables. The following pedagogic fable illustrates the virtue of humility.

The fruit trees were chided once by the shade trees: "Why don't you make a noise in your branches like we do?"

The fruit trees replied: "Why do we have to make a noise? Our fruit speaks loudly enough for us."

The following parable, which was written down by the medieval German teacher of ethics, Rabbi Judah ben Asher (1270-1349), who enjoyed a vast popularity among the Jews of the European ghettos:

A wise man was asked: "Why is it that we see you always honoring every man you meet?" ... He replied:

"I have not yet seen the man in whom I did not discover some merit I do not possess and for which I feel bound to do him honor ... it's like this:

• If he is old, I say, 'This man must have performed more good deeds than I.'
  
• If he is rich, I say, 'This man undoubtedly practiced more benevolence than I.'
  
• If he is young, I say, 'I must sinned more than he.'
  
• If he is poor, I say, 'This man certainly must have suffered more than I.'
  
• And if he is wise, I say, 'Surely, G-d's punishment rests lighter on him than on me.'

Therefore, as you can see, I am required to honor everyone I meet."

A characteristic of all gentle people is having a charitable approach to the faults of others ... and that approach teaches one to be mellow, understanding, and patient. This is what Eleazar ben Samuel of Mayence told his sons and his daughters in the testament he left them in 1357. So he wrote: "Judge every man charitably, and try your hardest to discover a favorable explanation for the conduct of every person, however suspicious they may appear to you." That is classic Jewish ethical doctrine, and it all points to the real source of benevolence: a love of people.

"Who is a hero?" is the question rhetorically posed in Pirke Avos (the Sayings of the Fathers). And the answer is given: "He who turns an enemy into a friend."

But ... the Rabbinical teachers had no illusions about how easy it was to overcome hatred with the power of love. It was the sober reflection of the great medieval poet, Solomon ibn Gabirol, that "The space in the eye of a needle is sufficient for two friends, but the entire world is not big enough to hold two enemies."

The Talmudic Sages clearly recognized that one source of conflict in people lay in their irrational impulses. Another source was the malicious drive in individuals that somehow deluded them into thinking that by denigrating others, they could elevate themselves. Of this perverseness in conduct, the Rabbis observed ruefully in the Talmud ... "There are many people who eat and drink convivially together; and still, they stab each other with their tongues."

So fully aware of all these incongruities in human character and of the difficulty in overcoming them, the Rabbis exhorted all individuals of sincerity and good will to exercise a moral discipline and bridle their errant thoughts, impulses, and feelings so that they might avoid the pitfalls of the irrational.

Forgiveness, said the ancient Rabbis, was one aspect of love ... It called for the exercise by the individual of moral restraint and strength to overcome the petty and rancorous emotions aroused in him by the hostile conduct of others.

Forgiveness was among the ethical values most extolled by the ancient Scribes and Pharisees ... They were the Rabbinical teachers of ethics living during the Second Commonwealth in Judea. There is no question but that they transmitted their high regard for the qualities of love for one's neighbor, compassion, gentleness, mutual aid, purity of heart, and forgiveness of wrong ... into the teachings of Jesus, the Essenic rabbi of Nazareth.

Antedating by about two centuries the founder of Christianity in his preachments of love, humility, charity, and forgiveness, is the following exhortation found in the Testament of Gad ... "Love ye one another from the heart; and if a man sin against thee, speak peaceably to him ... But [even} if he be shameless and persisteth in his wrongdoing, even so forgive him."

The duty to forgive a "wrongdoing" was considered to be an essential part of the Jew's moral apparatus, necessary in all of his relations with others ... And if one thinks the Lord's Prayer of the Christians, which strikes so many exalted sonorities, and is represented by many as marking the birth of a new ethos in religion, supersedes that of the Jews, one need only point to oft articulated ancient Jewish beliefs that were cut from the very same moralistic cloth.

A generation before Jesus appeared upon the Jewish scene, Philo, the famous rabbi-philosopher of Alexandria, preached to the Jews of his city: "If you ask pardon (from G-d) for your sins, do you also forgive those who have trespassed against you?" ... "G-d is my witness that my head has never rested on the pillow before I pardoned all who injured me" ... To this very day, before lying down to sleep, and as part of their prayers ... traditional Jews recite this ancient Jewish declaration in the inward-directed undertone of private prayer:

Master of the world. I pardon every transgression and every wrong done to my person, to my property, to my honor, or to all that I have ... Let no one be punished on my account.

Listen my masters, I beg forgiveness for all the offenses I may have committed against any of you whether in deed or word.

In other cultures, good manners have been treated usually as a requirement of etiquette, as a submission in conformity to the prevailing social protocol arrived at either by custom of by entirely arbitrary criteria of "good taste" and "courtesy."

Good manners were a far different matter of Jews in Rabbinical times. Then the emphasis on social manners was ethical in character. The Sages thought about it in this way: Good manners were good morals; bad manners were sinful acts ... In past generations, Jews conformed to the social pattern so as to avoid offending the sensibilities of their fellowman. 'And so the pious followed the numerous moralistic admonitions against speaking or acting out of perversity, without first weighing the consequences or possible effects their behavior might have on others.

The Pharisee Sage Hillel taught, two thousand years ago ... "Do not sit in the midst of those who stand, and do not stand among those who sit. Also do not laugh when others weep, and do not weep when others laugh."

To say or do anything to humiliate another person, no matter how young or old, whether he was illustrious or humble, was condemned as the "shedding of blood." The assumption was that the feelings as well as the flesh of human beings can be made to "bleed," and to hurt with words would constitute an indefensible form of violence. The Sages therefore concluded that because wounding with words can leave scars that never heal, "Far better were it for a man to leap into a fiery furnace than to humiliate his fellow man."

The morality of good manners also produced severe criticism against obscenity and indecent conduct. There was always evident, although less so since the start of the civil emancipation of Jews in the nineteenth century ... a consistent refinement or Puritanism among the great majority of Jews. To talk about sex or woman in a lewd or cynical manner was condemned by religious law as sinful; it was an intrinsic part of Jewish "good manners" to avoid any discussion, no matter how discreet, of such subjects. "Delicacy forbids talking about such things," pointed out the moralists.

The same restraint was observed in social life with respect to the use of coarse language. Making rude references to the human anatomy and to its physiological functions was frowned upon ... not that religious Jews could not be direct and outspoken whenever it was required. And so the Rabbinical moralists cautioned: "Accustom not your lips to vulgar words, for in that too is sin." Ghetto Jews quite often retreated into the employment of euphemism ... the inevitable escape of the "refined" in all cultures ... to avoid the dilemma of having to "say it like it is."

A group of Rabbinic teachers of ethics during the second century, had become absorbed by the following challenge ... What scriptural saying could sum up by itself the quintessence of the Torah? ... Each one volunteered his favorite saying.

Ben Azzai recited the verse: "In the day that G-d created man, in the likeness of G-d created He him." (Genesis 5:1.) ... Ben Azzai's interpretation was that because man bore the moral imprimatur of divinity, he was endowed with the potential of all the virtues which, if he but willed to develop them, could add greater dignity and nobility to his stature as a human being ... For that reason, it logically followed that all the teaching concerning humanity and moral goodness stemmed from the belief that man was made in the image of G-d.

Then Ben Azzai's colleague, Rabbi Akiba, made a different choice; he recited the commandment ... "Love thy neighbor as thyself." (Leviticus 19:18) ... As an aside, you should know that this section deals with many of the interpersonal relationship laws ... such as: not taking revenge, not bearing a grudge, and the obligation to rebuke.

From the context of subsequent discussion concerning this matter, it is seen that both of these verses were considered fully complementary to each other ... and they both represented the same fundamental truth, except were arrived at from very different approaches. The rationale for this was quite simple ... By loving his neighbor, man was merely vindication the divine image in which he was cast.

Finally other teachers of ethics during the Second Temple period expressed the doctrine, even more simply than Torah ... "Love all men," they urged ... They did not qualify it saying ... "Love certain men," or ... "Love good men," or ... "Love the Jews."

This concept of brotherhood emerged from the fundamental Jewish view that universal man stood above all considerations of country, race, and religious creed. Like the anthropologists of today, the ancient moralists of Israel seemed to have been well aware that there existed no such thing as racial purity, that the Jews were biologically "mixed" ... Witness the pointed reminder by the Prophet Ezekiel to the Jew that "the Amorite was your father, and your mother was a Hittite."

All men came from he same source, declared the Talmud ... Having been fashioned by the same Creator out of the same materials ... we are all equal, and therefore, brothers ... "The dust that entered into the making of the first man was gathered from every land in the world" ... runs the old Jewish folk belief ... So why did the Creator do that? ... asked the Rabbinic sages ... They astutely answered as follows:

While it is patently true that not a few Jews in modern times have succumbed to the excessive pride, which probably stems from a misinterpretation of the Jewish historic-religious concept of ... The Chosen People ... (not that other groups have not considered themselves as something special ... only they will go to heaven, etc.) love for all peoples has been the dominant tradition in Jewish thought and practice.

One has only to read a few of the ethical teachings and sayings lovingly repeated by the Jewish folk in every generation to recognize that brotherly love ... in the framework of human equality ... has been one of the continuing national ideals of "the Chosen People" ... Some of the teachings are:

He is worthy of honor who honors mankind.

Despise no creature; the most insignificant person is the work of your Maker."

He who hates another human being hates G-d.

I call heaven and earth to witness that, whether a person is Gentile or Jew, man or woman, manservant or maidservant ... upon each, according to his conduct, will the Divine Presence rest.

This expression is derived from Attah Bechartanu ("You have chosen us"), which are the opening Hebrew words of a prayer said on the Holy Days.

This concept of Israel as an Elect of G-d ... is first indicated in the covenant with Abraham, "the first Jew." G-d had chosen him, and through him all his descendants down the ages, to be his dedicated "servants" ... This awesome covenant with G-d, according to the Book of Exodus, had been reaffirmed by the entire Jewish people before Mount Sinai. It constituted a total consecration ... the kind which ho people in all history, before or since, seems to have entered into with any deity.

From whence comes this "choseness" ... the classic statement of this agreement, in the words of G-d in the Bible, runs thus ... "Now, therefore, if ye will hearken unto my voice indeed, and keep My covenant ... then ye shall be Mine own treasure from among all peoples; for all the earth is Mine ... and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation." (Exodus 19:5-6).

What this meant was that, out of its own free will, Israel was dedicating itself to worship G-d and to serve in the world as the champion of His eternal truth ... the Torah. In addition, it solemnly undertook to put the precepts of the Torah into daily practice and, by setting an example in its own righteous national existence, inspire all the other peoples on the earth to embrace the Jewish faith and thereby bring about the redemption ofd the entire human race.

Now this universalistic striving of the Jewish people was at the heart of many of its religious beliefs, ethical ideals, and practices, and largely explains the wide appeal and success of Christianity ... which took over from Prophetic and Rabbinic Judaism so much of its philosophy of life, as well as many of its social and moral values.

Understandably enough, there has been much confusion and disagreement among all people regarding the concept of the Jews as a chosen people ... Even within the Jewish community, there are many interpretations ... Each thought in the Torah has many interpretations ... You can see my ... Torah ... page for an example of this idea.

Much obloquy, discredit, dishonor, and scorn ... has been heaped by some modern anti-Semites on the concept of "the Chosen People." No doubt, some are from the pretensions of certain Jews ... who have laid an unjustified emphasis on their own chauvinistically motivated misinterpretations, and have added fuel to the fire. But these are a small minority of the Jewish people.

For instance, the exalted self-dedication of Israel to the service of G-d ... (Isaiah 61:6) ... "But ye shall be named the Priests of the L-rd" ... was interpreted by some Talmudic Rabbis to mean that the Jews were morally superior, which again was one reason G-d had chosen them as his favorites.

This pretty conceit evoked these comments of self-praise ... (somewhat beyond self-esteem) ... "All Jews are holy ... All Jews are princes .. Only for Israel was the world created ... None but Israelites are called the Children of G-d." And to cite just one modern variation of this ancient theme, and one offered by none other than, this is not a typo, Georg Brandes (1847-1931), the eminent Danish scholar and historian, and who at the turn of the century was a most controversial figure, said ... "I maintain that the Jews are the most intelligent of all the peoples on earth."

No doubt this is going too far, though I must admit that in biblical times, when the greatest power on earth, Egypt, was worshipping the crocodile and other animals, and sacrificing or mutilating children (a practice not unknown to modern times), the Jewish people were morally far more advanced ... So while Egypt was periodically sacrificing a virgin to the G-d of the Nile, which they called the "betrothed bride" by mercilessly throwing her bound into the river ... standing there at the foot of Mt. Sinai, were the Jews, every one of them virtually prophets.

Were we chosen at Mt. Sinai for some reason, and did we chose correctly? ... I would have to say "Yes" ... Have the Jews succeeded in education, the arts, the theater, medicine, law, professional life, and business (including export-import), and of course, philanthropies, and most worthwhile human endeavors far beyond their very small numerical proportion in the human community? ... Again, I would have to say ... Yes. There are many reasons, all of which I can not go into here.

Much more general in Jewish esteem than "the Chosen People" idea, and running as deep as an underground stream, is the tradition formulated by Sa'adia ben Joseph (882-942), one of the most influential scholars of Jewish orthodoxy ... who said: All creatures are His creatures, and we may not say that He has taken to Himself one to the exclusion of the other, or to a greater degree than another ... He is the G-d of all mankind ... the worth of each man (woman too) and his lot are equally precious to Him."

To conclude, far from aiming to guild itself up as a superior, and elite, or "master" race, the Jewish people, according to fundamental tradition, was and is dedicated to bringing all the people of the earth into one common brotherhood, bestowing an equal worth upon each individual ... although on Judaism's own idealistic terms - of: