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Rabbi YY Jacobson - To Become Truly Humble

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Author: Rabbi YY Jacobson
Categories: Religion Psychology
Tags: religion, psychology
Views: 2 · Last viewed: 2026-10-16 10:04 UTC

Short Summary

Main recommendation: Pursue genuine humility as the deepest spiritual achievement, even when visible spiritual breakthroughs (like a revelation of Eliyahu HaNavi) do not come. The story centers on a learned, self-assured man who spent ten years on disciplined spiritual work seeking such a revelation, only to be told by the Baal Shem Tov that becoming humble was the greater accomplishment. The speaker adds that this humility can reveal one's inner self more deeply than an external revelation.

Key Points

  • A Jewish man who was a spiritually accomplished Talmud scholar, with a big mind and high self-regard, asked the Baal Shem Tov for a path to gilui (perceiving or seeing Elijah the Prophet).
  • The Baal Shem Tov gave him a ten-year program of instructions on how to live and behave to reach this goal, which he followed with discipline.
  • After ten years, nothing visible happened, and the man returned devastated, calling his efforts futile.
  • The Baal Shem Tov replied that the man had accomplished the most difficult task: becoming a humble human being.
  • The speaker frames humility as allowing a person to reveal their own self, including the yechidah and core of the neshamah, which can be deeper than an external revelation.

Details Worth Noting

  • Concrete instructions: The transcript gives no specific actionable steps, amounts, or checklists. The only guidance mentioned is a general ten-year regimen of living and behaving in a disciplined way, which included prayer, study, meditation, fasting, introspection, refining character, and freeing oneself from negative qualities, dispositions, and emotions. The transcript does not detail any of these practices beyond naming them.
  • The man's initial motivation and self-image (big mind, Talmud scholar, grand self-esteem) are presented as the obstacles his ten-year work addressed.
  • The man's disappointment is portrayed as the moment that revealed the real outcome of his work.
  • Key terms: gilui means perceiving or seeing a revelation; Eliyahu HaNavi is Elijah the Prophet; yechidah and neshamah refer to inner aspects of the soul as used in the speaker's framing.

Bottom Line

Spiritual progress may show up as inner transformation, such as humility, rather than the dramatic outcome one expects.