Musar על סוטה 9:26

Our Rabbis said: "Every man who is impudent or proud of spirit it is as though he were an idolator" (Sotah 4b), for it is written, "Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord" (Prov. 16:5) and it is written there: "You must not bring an abhorrent thing (idol) into your house …" (Deut. 7:26). And there are those who say it is as though he violated all the laws against sexual license, for it is written: "For all these abominations were done by the people who were in the land before you and the land became defiled …" (Lev. 18:27). And there are those who say, "It is as though he built a place for idolatry." And they said in Sotah 5a, "Every man who is arrogant of spirit becomes less in the end as it is said: 'They are exalted for a little while' (Job 24:25). And such a one is deserving to be hewn down like a grove planted for idol worship, as it is said: 'And the high ones of stature shall be hewn down' (Is. 10:33). And his dust shall not awaken and the Spirit of God laments over him. The Holy One Blessed be He, said, 'I and he cannot live in the same world,' as it is said: 'Whoso is haughty of eye and proud of heart, him will I not suffer'" (Ps. 101:5).

And he who makes his heart as nothing but flesh — his prayer will be heard, as it is written: "All flesh will come to bow before Me, said the Lord" (Is. 66:23) (See Sotah 5a). And it is written: "O Thou that hearest prayer, unto Thee does all flesh come" (Ps. 65:3).

The very words "what is this you have done to us," seem a repetition. When Moses answers them at length, saying a) "do not fear," b) "stand upright," c) "watch the salvation of G–d," plus the words "the way you see Egypt this day you will never see Egypt again," this surely appears an unnecessarily long answer! Besides, the last statement is not a clear-cut promise, but could be interpreted in exactly the reverse manner! In fact, in the days of Jeremiah, the Israelites who fled from the land of Israel after the ruin of the Temple turned to Egypt for succour! Moreover, the Torah (Deut. 28,68) describes Israel's return to Egypt as one of the curses in store for them for not observing the Torah! For all these reasons our sages did not view this latter statement of Moses: לא תוסיפו לראותם עוד עד העולם as a promise, but construed it as a prohibition not to settle in the land of Egypt (Jerusalem Talmud, Sotah 5,5). Even so, how can the historical period under discussion be related to what happened a millenium later to permit a distorted text at this point! This was surely not the time and the place to teach Israel never again to settle in Egypt! At this time the only thing that mattered was a timely prayer! This is why G–d said to Moses: "Israel is in distress and you indulge in overly long prayer!"

We have an allusion to this in Psalms 131. David testifies that though he had certainly attained a measure of understanding about the ways of G–d, this had not been a cause for him to become proud or haughty. In this Psalm the words לא גבה לבי allude to the שלימות הגוף, whereas the following words ולא רמו עיני allude to the שלימות הממון, seeing that it is the eye which is usually the cause of greed for money. The last words ולא הלכתי בגדולות refer to the שלימות הנפש. It means that David did not seek out merits which were beyond his ability to achieve, and when he was granted them he did not boast about such achievements. When our sages report that any halachic ruling made by David was always accepted as final this may have been the reward for his humility.

And our sages of blessed memory said: "Man should always learn from the mind of his Creator; for behold, the Holy One, blessed be He, ignored all the mountains and heights and caused His Shechinah to abide upon Mount Sinai" (Sotah 5a). This was because of Mount Sinai's lowliness.