To: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Subject: Pirkei Avos - Chapter 4, Mishna 4 From: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 21:05:02 -0400 Pirkei Avos       by Rabbi Dovid Rosenfeld       Print Version To sponsor an edition of the Pirkei Avos e-mail list, click here Chapter 4, Mishna 4 Dust and Ashes Rabbi Levitas of Yavneh said: Be extremely lowly of spirit, for the end of man is worms. This week's mishna advises us to be humble, lowly of spirit. We should not be excessively proud of ourselves and our talents. We certainly must not identify too strongly with that bit of flesh into which G-d breathed our souls, for the end of man is worms. Our mishna's language may strike us. Be extremely lowly ( me'od me'od ( very very ) in Hebrew). R. Levitas does not mince his words. Go to an extreme; treat yourself like dirt. Consider yourself and your body as the rotting carcass it will one day become. And this should strike us. Judaism (in spite of a perhaps fundamentalist image) is not a religion of extremes. It does not preach poverty, celibacy or self-flagellation. It even instructs us (from a theological standpoint, that is) to look after our health. Thus, we would expect the Torah to foster a more balanced attitude towards our physical halves and our self images. Shouldn't we see ourselves as important and potentially great individuals? Aren't our bodies worthy and Divinely-constructed tools to be used in the service of G-d? Won't such crushing self-denigration demean us and sap us of our self-confidence? Should we really views ourselves as nothing more than eventual food for worms? To explain, I would like to back up a bit. Let us first better define the arrogance our mishna decries. We will then be able to distinguish between true, healthy humility and a crushing, debilitating sense of worthlessness. The Sages view arrogance as virtually the antithesis of everything Jewish. The Talmud writes that a person who is conceited is as one who commits idolatry, and that G-d says to such a person: He and I cannot dwell together in the world (Sotah 4b-5a). The implication is that one who is vain