Chasidut for Sotah 9:27

You, Jewish lads and young men, are the hosts and armies of the Holy One, blessed be He; and Channah requested one child from these hosts. You are pure of spirit before Him like His angels on high. You shall conquer the world for His sake and crown Him, may He be blessed, upon it. Not with the sword or the spear, but rather with the spirit of God within you. You shall raise up a treasured and holy nation from yourselves; through you, His light will shine and the world will be sanctified with His holiness. So why should you be haughty and push one heart away from the other, when you are also pushing God away with this? And God has already said about the proud person, "He and I are not able to dwell together, it is as if he is pushing away My feet" (Sotah 5a).

Deuteronomy 10,12. “and now, Israel, what dos the ‎Lord your G’d ask of you other than to revere and be in ‎awe?”
It is a well known rule in Judaism that we must ‎each endeavour to be modest, humble, in all our aspirations as ‎well as in all our undertakings. In the event that someone were to ‎misinterpret this rule as extending also to the manner in which ‎we relate to serving the Lord, this would be a gross error; on the ‎contrary we must constantly remember that our deeds in terms ‎of serving the Lord are of the utmost importance to Him, and we ‎must therefore try to excel in that realm of our activities. Seeing ‎that our “service” provides Him with pleasure it is logical that we ‎must strive to provide Him with as much “pleasure” as it is ‎possible for us to do. If we were to extend the principle of ‎modesty and humility to the way in which we serve the Lord, and ‎present it as part of our modesty, this would in fact be akin to ‎blasphemy.‎
Our sages have alluded to this subject in Sotah 5 where ‎the Talmud says that among people excommunicated there are ‎some that are haughty and others that are not. The Talmud had ‎previously recommended that Torah scholars must possess a ‎minimum of visible self respect known as sh’minit ‎be’shminit, (smallest unit of measuring devices) as otherwise ‎ordinary people, instead of revering them, would belittle them, ‎and if that were to happen they would in fact belittle the Torah ‎knowledge that such scholars represent. According to our author, ‎the very fact that we must provide G’d with “pleasure” through ‎our service implies that we ourselves will have some satisfaction ‎of having been the vehicle to cause G’d such “pleasure.” If we ‎were to be too modest, how could we feel privileged to have been ‎this vehicle of G’d’s “pleasure?”‎
Our sages in Chagigah 7 are on record that the Israelites ‎provide G’d with His sustenance. Receiving one’s sustenance ‎certainly results in the recipient “enjoying” some pleasure from ‎the experience. This is what Moses had in mind when he asked ‎the rhetorical question: “what does the Lord your G’d ask of you? ‎The virtue of ‎יראת השם‎, “reverence for the Lord,” is none other ‎than the virtue of humility. Our sages in Chulin 89 dwell on ‎the relative humility and modesty of Avraham and Moses, ‎quoting various verses on the subject. They conclude that when ‎Moses said of himself and his brother Aaron: ‎ונחנו מה‎, “and what ‎do we amount to?” [omitting even the letter ‎א‎ from the ‎word ‎אנחנו‎ for “we,” Ed.] that this is the level of humility ‎that G’d expects of each of us. In other words, whereas ‎concerning all other attributes, humility must accompany them ‎in order for the owner to practice them optimally, when it comes ‎to reverence for the Lord, such considerations are ‎counterproductive; fear/reverence/awe of the Lord must be ‎maximized so as to provide the Lord with a maximal amount of ‎‎“pleasure.”‎

The blemish of the moon reflects the deficiency that God programmed into the very fabric of creation. God saw the necessity for such a deficiency in order to give man the possibility of serving Him. This is as it is written in the Zohar (Tetsave, 184a): Man only serves God from amidst darkness… This is as it is written (Yeshayahu, 48), “You are called a criminal from the womb.” God concealed the good that results from this type of service until the final redemption, to that special day known only to Him. This is as it is written in the Talmud (Shevuot, 9a) concerning the goat offered of the new moon (Bamidbar, 28:15), “‘And one goat for a sin offering for God.’ Why does the verse here say, ‘for God,’ which is not said after other offerings? It is as if God is saying, ‘Bring a sacrifice for Me, in order to atone for My own sin of diminishing the moon!’”⁴⁴⁵Chulin, 60b: Rav Shimon ben Pazzi pointed out a contradiction between two verses. One verse says, “And God made the two great lights,” and immediately the verse continues, “The greater light . . . and the lesser light.” [In other words, are they both great, or are they great and small?] The moon said unto the Holy One, blessed be He, “Master of the Universe! Is it possible for two kings to wear one crown?” [I.e. can there be two great lights?] God answered, “So go and make yourself smaller.” The moon cried, “Master of the Universe! Since I have suggested that which is proper, I have to make myself smaller?” He replied: “Then you will go and rule by day and by night.” [I.e. the moon can be see both at night and by day.] “What is the value of this?” cried the moon; “What is the use of a lamp in broad daylight?” God answered, “Go. By you will Israel calculate the days and the years.” “But it is impossible to calculate the seasons without the sun!” said the moon, “as it is written, And let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years.” “Go, for the righteous shall be named after you, as we find, Yaakov the Small, Shmuel the Small, David the Small.” On seeing that the moon would not be consoled, the Holy One, blessed be He, said: “Bring an atonement for Me for making the moon smaller.” This is what Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish meant when he said, “Why is it that the he-goat offered on the new moon is phrased differently in that after it, it is said, ‘a sin offering for G-d’? Because the Holy One, blessed be He, said, ‘Let this he-goat be an atonement for Me for making the moon smaller.’” It is hinted at here that a person should not complain angrily to God, but rather, should accept everything with love. This is what the Zohar meant when it quoted the verse, ““from new moon to new moon… all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the Lord.” The word, “flesh,” hints at the deficiency which exists in the very nature of the creation, as the Talmud states (Sotah, 5a), “the word, ‘flesh – basar,’ is an acronym for ‘busha – shame,’ ‘sruha – stench,’ ‘rima –worm.’” Thus, “flesh” is the root of all deficiencies. Yet, the future renewal will be built from this deficiency and raised up out of this shame. This is as our passage in the Zohar continues (Tetsave, 184a): He opened and said (Yeshayahu, 52:13), “Behold, My servant shall prosper; he shall be exalted and lifted up, and he shall be very high.”⁴⁴⁶This is a prophecy concerning the righteous in the messianic era. Fortunate is the portion of the righteous to whom the Holy One, blessed be He, reveals the way of the Torah and how to live by it! Come and see how this verse is a sublime mystery. “My servant shall prosper,” has been explained. Yet come and see! When God created the world, He created the moon, and then made her light smaller. In this way, she would not have any light of her own. Since she made herself smaller, she only reflects the light she receives from the sun and the power of the supernal luminaries. In the days of the Holy Temple, Israel was assiduous in bringing sacrifices together with all the other services performed by the Cohanim, Levi’im, and Israelites. Their service wove bonds of union and caused an intense illumination. After the Temple was destroyed, the lights were darkened, and the moon no longer shined from the light of the sun. Ever since the sun withdrew from her, the days are fraught with curses, affliction, and pain.⁴⁴⁷This is a metaphor for creation in its present, exilic state, in which the light of the son (G-d) no longer shines upon the moon (our world). Thus, it is a period of suffering and pain. But of the time when the moon will shine with her original light, it is said of her, “Behold, my servant shall prosper.” This is the mystery of emunah (faith). At that time, there will be an awakening in the upper realms, like someone who, upon catching a sweet scent, wakes up and looks out at the world. “He shall be exalted,” from the side of the most exalted of luminaries. And as in the verse (Yeshayahu, 30:18), “And He will be exalted that He may have mercy upon you.” “Lifted up,” is from the side of Avraham. “He shall be (very) high,” is from the side of Yitzhak. Whereas “very” is from the side of Yaakov. in the mystery of wisdom. At that time the Holy One, blessed be He, will cause an awakening on high in order to allow the moon to shine in her full splendor, as it is written (Yeshayahu, 30:26), “Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of the seven days.” For this reason, an exalted spirit will be added to the moon which will rouse the dead who sleep in the dust. This is the meaning of “My servant,” who has the key of the Master in his hand.