Welcome to our Anava series. The Midrash Raba Bereshit 81:2 tells the following story: Rabbenu HaKadosh, also known as Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the redactor of the Mishna, was passing by the town of Simonia , where the residents of came out to greet him and made a request. They said, " Rebbi, provide us with a person who will teach us both the Tanach and the Mishna and we'll judge our disputes." Rebbi gave them none other than Rav Levi BarSisi. When Rav Levi came to the town they constructed a large platform for him and seated him upon it so that he would address them, at which time the words of the Torah became hidden from his mouth. In other words, he forgot some of his learning. They asked him three questions on the laws of chalitza and he was not able to answer them. They said, Well, maybe this rabbi is more of an expert in Aggada, in the Musar aspects and not so much in Talmudic law. So they asked him a question on a pasuk , and again, he wasn't able to answer. When Rav Levi saw how dire the situation was, he got up early the next morning and returned to Rabbenu HaKadosh, hoping that Rabbenu HaKadosh would relieve him of his post, seeing the difficulty he was having. Rebbi asked him, " So how'd it go? How's it going in your new position?" He said, " Please, don't even bring it up. Don't remind me of my troubles." What happened? "They asked me these questions,and I wasn't able to answer them. " Rebbi said, What questions did they ask you ? Rav Levi repeated the questions and gave all the answers. Then he repeated the question from the pesukim and gave those answers. Rebbe then asked, " So why didn't you answer them like you answered me?" Rav Levi said, " They made a large platform for me and seated me upon it, and my spirit became conceited and the words of the Torah became hidden from me." Unbelievable. Why did this happen? Rav Yerucham Levovitz, in his sefer Da'at Chochma UMussar (vol 2, page 53) has an essay called Kedushat HaTorah/the Holiness of Torah . He writes, I was just in the town of Vilna and I was hosted in a house that was directly opposite of the university. I was looking at the students as they were going and coming from the school and I saw something strange. As they were walking in, they were combing their hair, making themselves look good. And on the way out, they were also doing that. The boys and girls were lightheadedly coming and going. And I assume that it was pretty similar when they were inside the classes as well. That's the way they learn their secular wisdom. It seems not to bother their studies, because they're graduating and everything is going fine. Maybe it bothers them a little bit, but it's not so terrible. On the other hand, let's look at how our study halls look. What if we would have that going on? It's a total contradiction. In a situation of lightheadedness, you can't learn Torah. You can't even think Torah in situations where it's unclean or unbecoming, because it disturbs the Torah. He says, You know what that shows me? That Torah comes from heaven. It's holy, it's pure. And therefore it doesn't tolerate anything that is contrary to holiness impurity. Which is why, as we said, You can't learn Torah opposite something that's not clean. You can't pray opposite something that's unclean. That's how holy our religion is. The nature of the Torah is kodesh kodashim. We have to make ourselves befitting to receive the Torah. We have to make sure that we're all shiny clean, not externally shiny and clean, but internally- we have to be shiny clean. Otherwise, the Gemara will not stay with us; Our learning will not stay with us. He says, Torah, due to its holiness and its purity, does not tolerate anyone with bad Middot. A drop of arrogance, or a drop of being makpid/ being exacting is enough to make it leave. As we may know, there are 48 ways to wisdom and most of them are character refinements. After this, he quotes this story of Rav Levi Bar Sisi, and says that because of a little bit of arrogance that he felt, he started to forget his learning. This is unbelievable. We don't find this in any other realm. Torah is compared to water, as we've said. Just like water flows downward, the Torah flows downward, like it says in Shir HaShirim 1:19. Therefore a person has to make himself fit for the Torah. A drop of arrogance, a drop of conceit, a drop of holiness , and it leaves. He says, professors have no problem standing on the highest of platforms with their hearts full of all kinds of abominations, with Middot that are off. It doesn't bother them at all. Why not? Because Torah is min Hashamayim . Torah is holy. That's why we need that refinement. What refinement are we talking about? The ultimate refinement is the refinement of humility . That's why we see that all the Gedoleh Yisrael are extremely humble. There's a famous story about Rav Akiva Eiger. Somebody wrote him a letter and he wrote back to the man with all kinds of great titles, "To the great leader in Israel, to the light of our nation." The person he was writing to was a simple rabbi, and when asked why he had addressed the rabbi this way, Rabbi Akiva Eiger replied, " Well, I see people write like that to me. I thought it was proper etiquette, so that's the way I wrote to him." Rabbi Eiger was not saying to himself, " Of course I'm the Gadol Hador and that's why they write like that to me. " He figured it was probably the way you're supposed to do it. This was the way of all our greats. It's not a coincidence. Rav Akiva Eiger was a giant of giants. When he asked a question, we call them bomb questions. And on the side of the Gemara there's a little gloss and a little sign that looks one of these warnings of a nuclear reactor. We used to say it's like a nuclear bomb, his questions. And he sometimes ends off his questions with, " God should enlighten my eyes," as if I'm the proble m. My glasses are foggy . They train us in Yeshiva that when you don't understand something, you don't say. Tosafot doesn't make any sense . You say, I don't understand this. Okay, very nice. That's good for me. But the greats say, " Oh, how lacking I am. I don't understand this Tosafot. I don't understand this Gemara. I have a weakness . This is what makes the great leaders great. It's not that they're great leaders and by the way, they're also humble. No, without the humility, they wouldn't have their Torah. They wouldn't be able to do it. And that, Rav Yerucham Levovitz says, is the message of that story. That's why it's very scary when we sometimes see people that know a lot of Torah but they're very arrogant people. What's going on? The answer is, quoting a term that the Chassid Yaavetz uses, " He's not a learned person. He's a Yodeah Torah." He knows Torah but that doesn't mean he's a Talmid Hacham . Similarly, there's a Gemara in Masechet Megila 28 B, where someone was asked to give a Hesped for a person that knew a lot of Torah. They asked Rav Nachman to give a eulogy, and his answer was, What should I say at the eulogy? That a basket full of books has been gone? I heard this from my Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Abba Berman. This man learned a lot, but the learning did not become part of him. It was just knowledge . If a person does not have the proper Middot , its not that he can't have knowledge , but that knowledge is just like secular knowledge. The reason Rav Levi Barsisi's Torah left him is because his Torah was Torah Kedosha which can not tolerate bad Middot. If it's just knowledge of Torah, that's a different story. That's the importance of humility when it comes to holding your Torah.