More on shining God's light

Ari, please help me to synthesize your recent blog messages, if you can. You sang of how Mashiach will bestow Tzion on the humbled klal. Today you posted about shining our personal power at http://geulahperspectives.blogspot.com/2009/02/shining-gods-light.html

Now, how does one combine intentional use of superb unique abilities with anivut (humility)?

Great question!

The answer, like a good joke (or a good speech), is all in the delivery.

I'm sure you have met people who are talented, good-looking and successful, and they are absolutely full of themselves. Such an individual will come across as high and mighty - another opinion is worthless, and another perspective is meaningless. Theirs is the only one that could possibly be correct (after all there is only one objective reality!) and Heaven help you if you believe differently then them. If you are stuck in a room with this person, you want to find the nearest exit.

Then there are individuals (who are somewhat harder to come by) who recognize that they do have greatness, but their greatness is not their own. Every move they make speaks the fact that they recognize that it comes from Hashem. There is humility in their thoughts, words, and actions. These people are magnets, because they are focused outwards - not on drawing attention to themselves, and not on proving their own views. They ask about you, focus the conversations away from themselves and their own accomplishments. And by doing so, they accomplish the opposite (without intending). They draw you in, because they give you belief in yourself. They attract you with their light, and this light is not their own - it is the light of Hashem shining through them.

Ari