In the year 91 BCE, Alexander Yannai of the Hasmonean family succeeded his brother Yehuda Aristoblus to the throne of Judea. Alexander Yannai was a Sadducee who virulently persecuted the Pharisees. At one point during his bloody reign, following a victory he scored on a battlefield, he invited all the Torah scholars for a celebratory feast. During this feast he was slighted by one of the guests, which led him to execute all the Torah scholars in attendance.
A few of the sages managed to escape to the town of Sulukus in Syria. There, too, they encountered anti-Semitic enemies who murdered many of the exiled sages. The handful of surviving Torah scholars went in to hiding, finding refuge in the home of an individual named Zevadai. On the night of the 17th of Adar they escaped the hostile city of Sulukus.
Eventually these surviving scholars revived Torah Judaism. The date they escaped the clutches of death was established as a day of celebration.
“The man Moses was more humble than any human being on the face of the earth.” (Numbers 12:3)
Moses didn’t fool himself. He knew how good he was. He knew he stood on a level beyond any other human being. Yet he was humbled before them.
Because he knew that all that he had achieved was only with the capabilities given to him from Above. He figured that if someone else were given these same capabilities, that person would achieve as much as him.
And who knows, perhaps someone else would have used those capabilities to their fullest and achieved even more.