Quote of the Day: Getting Our Egos Out of the Way

Posted by parceline on

Saturday, July 14, 2018

“He has told you, O man, what is good,
And what the Lord requires of you:
Only to do justice, And to love goodness,
And to walk humbly with your God;
Then will your name achieve wisdom.”
— Micah, 6:8

Recently this verse was the haftorah paired with the weekly reading of the Torah. I had heard the verse before, but as a fairly new student of Torah, I hadn’t read it in context. I understand that this verse is the only one from Micah included with the haftorahs. I also realized how deeply moved I was by both its beauty and simplicity.

For some background, the Jews described in the Torah were continually straying from Judaism and adopting the culture and religions from the populations within which they lived. (Some things just don’t change.) G-d was repeatedly berating them for straying, for worshipping idols, and for abandoning their belief in G-d. After berating them, He would then tell them, through the many prophets, the kinds of lives they needed to live, as the people chosen to set an example for the world. In the case of this verse, G-d was speaking through Micah to tell the Jewish people what was expected. No matter how difficult it might be.

Micah (I think) suggests that we are the ones who complicate these expectations, making them difficult to meet. G-d has been clear, direct and firm about His demands; we have complicated them by demanding that we should be able to live our lives as we wish, essentially assuming we are gods ourselves. We are selfish, demanding and inflated by our egos. These attributes cause us to be unwilling or unable to honor that which is expected of us.

To do so, we must put our egos aside at times and embrace humility.

Do you struggle, as I do, with letting go of your ego and so that at least some of the time you can allow yourself to experience humility?

Published in Religion & Philosophy

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