That Little Voice

Nachmanides writes in his famous epistle, Igeret HaRamban: “In your eyes, everyone should be greater than you”. A person who lives his “nothingness”, namely, I am nothing without Hashem, understands that he is superior to no one; on the contrary, others are better than he is. He lives in humility. Rebbe Akiva’s 24,000 students were punished so terribly because they didn’t properly respect one another; each thought that he was better than his fellow. Rather than focusing on their own shortcomings, they focused on their peer’s shortcomings. They left the ways of Moses and their own Rebbe Akiva, both of whom were the epitome of humility.

One respects a person whom he regards as better than him. Those who feel superior to others have no respect for their fellow man.

Most of our “stern judgments” – our difficulties in life – stem from our failure to see ourselves in true perspective, namely, our nothingness without Hashem. A person must first realize that he must correct himself before he can correct others. And, if we are doing the right thing, it’s simply because Hashem is helping us. This awareness behooves us to thank Hashem for His help in the past and to plead for His continued help in the future.

The Baal Shem Tov teaches that if a big tzaddik sees or hears about someone’s transgression – even if such misbehavior apparently has nothing to do with such a righteous individual – it’s a sign that the tzaddik has not yet corrected the same thing either in a past incarnation or on all the present levels of thought, deed and speech.

We are not expected to correct transgressions form past incarnations – we have enough work to do in this present go-around on earth.

Let’s suppose we hear about a robbery; Hashem could be telling us that we too have something that doesn’t belong to us. Maybe we failed to return a sum of money that we borrowed. Maybe we failed to return a book that we borrowed from someone. Maybe we’re walking around with a ballpoint pen in our pocket that belongs to our employer. Even though we haven’t been caught in outright thievery, the little voice within us is telling us that we must rectify something. The general spiritual rule is that if one disdains the acts of others rather than assessing himself, he will soon be ensnared in the same trap.

King Solomon said rather cryptically, “He who scorns a word will cause himself injury” (Proverbs 13:13). With the above idea in mind, we can understand and appreciate this teaching. If a person haughtily thinks that he has no connection with the setbacks of other people that he witnesses or hears about, then he doesn’t understand that Hashem is talking to him with that little voice, “Where are you, My son?” Since he ignores Hashem’s message, he eventually commits misdeeds similar to the ones he saw. This is what Ben Azai meant when he said, “Don’t scorn anyone, and don’t ignore anything” (see Tractate Avot, Chapter 4). In other words, don’t scorn others and don’t think that their mistakes are beneath you, for you could easily find yourself in the same exact position. And whatever you do, don’t ignore that little voice calling you to come back to Hashem.