Welcome to our humility series. What was the reason Moshe Rabbenu was the greatest of prophets? What made him so special? The Nefesh HaChaim (gate 1, chapter 15) says that only Moshe Rabbenu merited that his full Neshama entered his body with all of its power and influence. That's why in Devarim 33:1, Moshe Rabbenu was called Ish HaElohim /a man of God. Rav Yaakov Hillel, in his commentary Nishmat HaYam on Nefesh HaChaim, connects this to what the Nefesh HaChaim writes in his third gate (chapters 13& 14), that Moshe Rabbenu stood out in the area of humility. It says in Bamidbar 12,3 וְהָאִ֥ישׁ מֹשֶׁ֖ה עָנָ֣ו מְאֹ֑ד מִכֹּל֙ הָֽאָדָ֔ם אֲשֶׁ֖ר עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הָאֲדָמָֽה׃ Moshe Rabbenu was the most humble of men. Furthermore, in Shemot 16,7 Moshe Rabbenu said about himself, ונחנו מה / What are we? Avraham Avinu said, I am dirt and dust , but even dirt and dust are something . It's not a lot, but it's something. However, Moshe Rabbenu said I am nothing . That's why, says Rav Yaakov Hillel, he was able to connect to Hashem on such a high level and reach such a high level of Holiness to the extent that the Shechina spoke through Moshe Rabbenu's throat, as it says, Moshe Rabbenu was different than all of the prophets . All other the prophets said Zeh Davar Hashem / this is the word of God. But Moshe Rabbenu said Ko Amar Hashem/ this is exactly what God says. It came from his throat as if God was talking through him. Why was this? Because he humbled himself to the extreme, and that humility purified his physicality to a point that no other person ever reached. Rav Chaim Volozhin, in his sefer Ruach Chaim Pirkei Avot (chapter 1, mishna 1) uses this to explain the Mishna that Moshe Kibel Torah M'Sinai/ Moshe accepted the Torah from Sinai in the zechut of his humility, more than any other prophet. That's why he was able to see with what's called a shiny window. Windows have different levels of clarity. Certain windows are tinted and you can't see through them well. The better or clearer the window, the better you can see through it. Since what separates us from God is our physicality, our holding of ourselves as a something (what's what we mean by physicality) interferes. But because Moshe's humility was so high, there was nothing to interfere with his connection to Hashem. The Baal Shem Tov has an interesting commentary on, אנכי עומד בין ה׳ וביניכם I am standing between you and your God. The simple meaning is that Moshe Rabbenu is the intermediary, but the Hasidim read it as, a person's Anochi , his egoism is what stands between him and God . Thus the interference between us and God is our egos. Since Moshe Rabbenu had no ego, there was no separation between him and God. This is a very interesting chiddush because the Rambam, in his Shmonei Perakim , where he talks about this concept of the clear glass and the unclear glass, says that every Middah creates an interference. And we see from here that the all/ powerful Middah that, so to say, cleans away all the dirt and grime from a person's soul, is the trait of humility. That was Moshe Rabbenu's greatness. The same Ruach HaChaim says that when it says, "Avraham, Avraham" in the Torah, there's a break between the two, like a line between the two Avrahams. But when is says Moshe Moshe , it doesn't have that. Why is that? Because one of the Avrahams is the Avraham down here, and the other Avraham is the Avraham above- the soul, or the source. His body and Neshama had some kind of separation, so there wasn't an exact connection (of course we talking about Avraham Avinu, so it was only the slightest little bit, but there was still some difference). Moshe Rabbenu reached even higher level. I saw in Rav Yisrael Eliyahu Weintraub's commentary on Nefesh HaChaim that he askshow we can make it sound like Moshe was greater than the Avot ? He explains that this is a concept we talked about before, of the Nanas/ the dwarf, Al Gaveh Anak standing on top of giants, which means Moshe (who, of course was not a dwarf) was building on what the Avot saw. The Avot were able to see Hashem. They used the term Elohim for Hashem. Rashi says, in the beginning of Vaera , that God appeared to the Avot with the name Elohim . But when He appeared to Moshe, it was with Hashem's Divine name of Yud and Heh and Vav and Heh . What's the difference? Elohim means God is in control of all forces. God's able to change nature. Avraham Avinu went into fire and the fire didn't burn him. That's changing nature. But Moshe Rabbenu was on a higher level. It was not like just changing the fire that it wouldn't burn. When he made the miracle of turning water into blood, and blood into water, that was a new creation. When God opened up the earth for Korach, it was a new creation. That higher level of there is no existence but God, which we call En Od Milevado, happened when Rabbenu gave us the Torah. Moshe Rabbenu reached that level and that connection, and his humility caused him to have that high level of understanding of God (Nefesh HaChaim Shaar 3,perek 13 where he discusses this difference between the two names of Hashem and how that impacted Moshe Rabbenu versus the Avot). Going back to our story of ego and I separating us from God, let's get more practical. We're not talking about levels of prophecy between us and Moshe and the Avot. Many political critics keep track of how many times a president or presidential candidate say I in their speeches. I did this and I did that. And I and I and I. That's the feeling of I am doing. That's the Anochi , the I , the ego . There's a beautiful to story told of Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi who eventually became the famous Baal HaTanya. He was studying under the Hasidish Rebbe Rav Dov Ber, who's known as the Maggid of Mezerich. Late one night, young Zalman knocked on his Rebbe's door to ask him a question. The Rebbe called out, " Who's there ?" And the young boy responded, " It's me ," confident that he would be recognized. The Rabbi repeated, " Who's there ?" and again, he said, " It's me." After the third time that the Rebbe asked Who's there ? the young student finally said, " It's Zalman." The Rebbe then opened the door and said, " My dear Zalman, the time has come for you to have a self-imposed exile. When you return, we will analyze your experience together." In those days, great people went into exile and for some reason, at this point, it was his time. So he went to a certain inn and that very night, thieves broke in and stole the silverware of the innkeeper. The next morning, the innkeeper was suspicious of this young stranger, Zalman, accused him of stealing the the silver and demanded that he confess. Zalman cried, "It was not me! It was not me!" The innkeeper grabbed him by the neck and accused him again. And again he cried, " It's not me, it's not me!" He then pulled himself out of the innkeeper's grip and fled back to Mezerich. He told the Maggid the story and the Maggid said, " This, my dear Zaman, is a lesson which you should never forget. Do you see how many times you were forced to shout, "Not me, not me?"That was in order to undo the effect of calling out proudly, "It's me!" Yes, of course this is the high level training of a great Hasidic Rebbe who eventually started a great dynasty. But the point for us is that the greater the person is, the less the I is there. Moshe Rabbenu did not possess an I and therefore he reached the greatest of levels. And the opposite, the greater the I, the bigger the interference between the person and God.