Shilach-Licha 5764
We read in the beginning of the Parshat Shilach Licha how Moshe Rabenu sent twelve men to spy out the land of Israel. The Torah gives us their names. At the end, the Torah tells us that from the tribe of Ephraim was Hoshea Bin Nun. The Torah then tells us that Moshe Rabenu went and changed his name from Hoshea to Yihoshua. The Y represented G-d’s name and a prayer that he made. In this prayer, Moshe Rabenu prayed for the return of his endeared student and that G-d should save him from the scheme of the spies. We know that this prayer did bear fruit when the spies came back, as ten of them gave a bad report, and Yihoshua Bin Nun protested against their report and said that the land was good and he silenced them.
There’s an interesting explanation of Yonatan Ben Uziel that tells us why Moshe Rabenu felt that Yihoshua needed the extra Yod in his name. The explanation states, when Moshe saw the humility of Yihoshua, Moshe then said that he had to add an extra Yod to his name. That implies as if humility was a problem. Usually humility is a good thing. Why would he have to adjust his name because he saw that he was humble? On the contrary, if he is a humble man then he has nothing to worry about. It’s the arrogant man that should change their name, but not the humble man.
So the Mefarshim explain that in Pirke Avot, humility is called a Livoosh. The words in Pirke Avot regarding humility correlate to a garment which has humility. Meaning the Talmide Chacham wear humility. And it’s been asked why is humility compared to a garment? Because a garment is worn and is also taken off. It is removed to teach us that humility must also be removed in certain situations.
There is a concept of misplaced humility. Sometimes one has to divest himself temporarily from humility in order to do the job at hand. In this case, Yihoshua was a humble man; he was a loyal student of his Rabbi Moshe who was the most humble. Therefore Moshe was concerned that this humility would get him into trouble. After all, the spies were greater Talmide Chachamim than Yihoshua Bin Nun was. Yihoshua was not the greatest from the spies. So Moshe was concerned that when the ten spies would come back and speak negatively about land of Israel, and when asked what his opinion was, Yihoshua might come to bow down and subject his opinion to the opinions of others. He might compare himself and question his sole opinion next to the opinions of the many. He might come to succumb to the opinion of the majority. That would be a case of misplaced humility. And therefore, when Moshe Rabenu saw the humility of Yihoshua, he blessed him with the hope that Yihoshua would not fall into such a trap. Yihoshua in this case must divest himself (momentarily) from the humility and stand his ground. You have to have the backbone, and protest against the majority opinion if warranted.
It is interesting to point out that the Yod that Moshe Rabenu added to Yihoshua’s name didn’t come form thin air. Moshe Rabenu took the Yod from Sarah. Sarah’s original name was Sarai. After the name change of Sarai, G-d took the Yod and put it in Geniza (so to speak), and added a Heh. So the Yod was now free and available. After much complaining, G-d said don’t worry, that you are going to be compensated, and that one day I will put you in a Tzadik’s name, and you will be upgraded. By Sarah’s name it was the last letter, but with Yihoshua’s name you are going to be the first letter.
I once heard the connection between Sarah and Yihoshua. Sarah once told her husband Avraham, that he must throw out Yishmael. Avraham said that it would be impossible. We don’t throw out people from our home. Our house is a home of hospitality. We bring in people. And when Sarah stood up against her husband, she stood her ground and furthermore said to G-d that he was making a mistake. Eventually G-d sided with Sarah. It’s amazing that Sarah had the ability, the courage, the confidence, and the strength of conviction to even challenge Avraham Avinu who was the greatest man that ever lived. We see that Sarah had the ability to divest herself from the humility at the proper time. Sarah could have easily said that Avraham knows better, because after all he wrote the book on religion. The greatness of Sarah was when she had to make a protest to stand up for what is right. She was correct, of course and maintained respect throughout. Yihoshua needed that trait of Sarah and therefore there was no coincidence that Moshe drew the letter Yod from Sarah, in order that some of that personality of Sarah would rub of on his students. When the spies came along and said the land is no Good, Yihoshua got up and contradicted just like Sarah.
And that is the lesson today. To be very humble, but to know exactly the time and place when a leader or a father sometimes takes a stand. Of course, one must do it with respect and with the proper language. But somehow we have to do the unpopular, even thought it might be humility for a moment.
That is a very important lesson. The lesson of misplace humility.
