The kabbalistic masters tell us that there are tzaddikim (righteous individuals) who live their entire lives as fish of the sea, wholly submerged within a perpetual awareness of and subjugation to the divine reality.

Such an individual was Moses, whose name expresses the aquatic nature of his soul (And she called his name Moses and said: Because I drew him from the water).

Thus the Torah attests that Moses was the most humble man on the face of the earth.

Moses was certainly aware of his own greatness; certainly he knew that he was the single human being chosen by G‑d to serve as the conveyor of His wisdom and will to man.

Yet Moses did not view his qualities as his own attainments, for he had utterly nullified and submerged his self within the sea of the Divine reality.

His own life was merely the Divine plan being realized through an egoless vehicle; his teachings, the Divine presence speaking from his throat.


For more about Moses, see The Birth of a Leader and Good and Bad Speech.