Vayikra: The Most Humble

(א) וַיִּקְרָ֖א אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֑ה וַיְדַבֵּ֤ר ה' אֵלָ֔יו מֵאֹ֥הֶל מוֹעֵ֖ד לֵאמֹֽר׃

(1) The Eternal called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying:

(א) א' דויקרא זעירא שמשה לא רצה לכתוב אלא ויקר כדרך שנא' בבלעם כאלו לא נראה לו השם אלא במקרה ואמר לו הקב''ה לכתוב גם באל''ף וכתבה קטנה.

Kitzur Ba'al HaTurim on Leviticus 1:1

(1) The Eternal called. The א of ויקרא is written as a small letter because Moshe wanted to write ויקר (and it happened), the way it is written regarding Bilaam, which implies God appeared to him only as a chance occurrence. God, however, told him to write the א which indicates God's love, but Moshe made it small.

במדבר י״ב:ג׳

(ג) וְהָאִ֥ישׁ מֹשֶׁ֖ה ענו [עָנָ֣יו] מְאֹ֑ד מִכֹּל֙ הָֽאָדָ֔ם אֲשֶׁ֖ר עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הָאֲדָמָֽה׃ (ס)

Numbers 12:3

(3) Now Moses was a very humble man, more so than any other man on earth.

דעת זקנים על במדבר י״ב:ג׳

(ב) ענו כתיב חסר יו"ד לומר שהוא עניו בכל אבריו כי כשתכתוב אותיות של ענו בקריאתן עי"ן נו"ן וא"ו תמצא שהוא עולה רמ"ח אברים:

Da'at Zekenim on Numbers 12:3

(2) ענו, the combined numerical value of the letters in this word is 248, a hint that there was not a bone in his body that was conceited.

The story of Moses well illustrates the role of ego in spiritual life. The Torah describes Moses as “more humble than any other person on the face of the earth.” What we know of Moses’s life and character before he encountered God at the burning bush and received the order to lead the Israelite slaves to freedom from Egypt tells us that he was not a meek, unassertive, cowering figure. What made him humble then? Although raised in the pharaoh’s palace, when Moses sees a Jew being flogged, he strikes and kills the Egyptian taskmaster. Soon after, he intervenes to prevent a slave from beating a fellow Jew. He runs away to Midian, and there he saves a group of shepherdesses from being harassed by the shepherds. What connects all these stories is that Moses did not make a priority of his own interests; we find his humility in the fact that he was not self-serving.

— With Heart in Mind: Mussar Teachings to Transform Your Life by Alan Morinis

Soon after I had finished giving a talk, an elderly woman approached me. I greeted her, and she started to say something. “You have a wonderful, wonderful . . . ,” she began, speaking slowly and stretching out the words, giving me lots of time to guess what it was she was leading up to. “Voice,” I finished her sentence in my mind, since I had just addressed the group. No, I then thought, maybe she was about to say “way with words,” since people do say I am articulate. And right after that, because I felt I had just made a really good presentation, I upped the ante to “presence.” Before I could speculate any further, however, her sentence arrived at the station to which her words had slowly been winding. “. . . wife,” she pronounced, her eyes smiling warmly. Oh, I thought. Then, “Thank you,” I recovered. “How do you know her?” I’ve never had a more graphic illustration of my own instinctive craving for praise and honor. Having blindly stepped in it up to my ankle, there was no way I could deny where I stood. Here was my spiritual curriculum.

— Everyday Holiness: The Jewish Spiritual Path of Mussar by Alan Morinis