Chullin 89

There’s an old Jewish joke: It’s Yom Kippur and the rabbi is on his knees before the ark, beating his breast and crying, “I’m nothing, Lord! Absolutely nothing!” Next to him, the synagogue’s wealthiest donor, also prostrate, declares, “God forgive me for thinking I’m something! I’m not. I’m nothing!” Way in the back, Shlomo, a poor man who does custodial work for the synagogue, is so inspired he gets down on his knees and cries, “I’m nothing, Lord!” The rabbi squints over at Shlomo, then elbows the donor, whispering, “Look who thinks he’s nothing.”

Humility is a religious value expressed in many classic Jewish texts; perhaps most famous is Micah’s admonition (6:8) that what God wants from us is: “Only to do justice, love goodness and walk humbly with your God.”

Having recently cited Abraham’s exclamation that he is but dust and ashes, today’s daf explores the subject of humility, starting with the idea that humility is especially desirable in those who hold power:

The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to the Jewish people: I desire that you, even at a time I bestow greatness upon you, diminish (i.e., humble) yourselves before Me. I granted greatness to Abraham, yet he said before Me: “And I am but dust and ashes” (Genesis 18:27). I granted greatness to Moses and Aaron, yet Moses said of the two of them: “And what are we?” (Exodus 16:7). I granted greatness to David, yet he said: “But I am a worm, and no man” (Psalms 22:7).

God expects us to express humility at precisely the moments when God grants greatness. Jewish leaders and heroes — Abraham, Moses and David — are exemplary in this respect.

But not all leaders are. The daf continues with examples of non-Jewish leaders who, when granted great esteem and power, failed to respond with humility:

I granted greatness to Nimrod, yet he said: “Come, let us build a city and a tower, with its top in heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name” (Genesis 11:4).

I granted greatness to Pharaoh, yet he said: “Who is the Lord?” (Exodus 5:2).

I granted greatness to Sennacherib, yet he said: “Who are they among all the gods of the countries that have delivered their country out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand” (II Kings 18:35).

I granted greatness to Nebuchadnezzar, yet he said: “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds” (Isaiah 14:14).

I granted greatness to Hiram, king of Tyre, yet he said: “I sit in the seat of God, in the heart of the seas” (Ezekiel 28:2).

The first four of these are villains of the Hebrew Bible: Nimrod built the Tower of Babel, leading God to mix up the languages of the world. Pharaoh enslaved the Israelites. Sennacherib was the Assyrian leader who destroyed the northern Kingdom of Israel, leading to the loss of ten tribes, and laid siege to Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar, the infamous Babylonian king, destroyed Jerusalem and the first Temple.
 
The more complicated example is Hiram, a Phoenician king allied with David and Solomon, who supplied materials and workers for the building of the first Temple. Although in many ways a boon to the Jewish people, he was known for an extreme haughtiness. Elsewhere in the Talmud, the rabbis decry Hiram’s apparent belief that he was divine.

The daf now dives deeper, distinguishing between the humility of Moses and Aaron, on the one hand, and the humility of Abraham, on the other:

Rava says, and some say Rabbi Yohanan says: Greater is that which is stated with regard to Moses and Aaron than that which is stated with regard to Abraham. As with regard to Abraham it is written: “And I am but dust and ashes,” while with regard to Moses and Aaron it is written: “And what are we?” (i.e., we are nothing). And Rava says, and some say Rabbi Yohanan says: The world endures only in the merit of Moses and Aaron. It is written here: “And what are we?” and it is written elsewhere: “He hangs the earth upon nothing” (Job 26:7).
 
Abraham is humble, the rabbis assert, but not as humble as Moses and Aaron. After all, Abraham claimed to be dust and ashes, which is something, while Moses and Aaron claimed to be nothing. You can’t get more humble than that. In a summary statement on the subject that closes the discussion, Rabbi Abbahu asserts:

The world endures only in the merit of one who renders himself as if he were non-existent, as it is stated: “And underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27).

In other words, one who considers himself to be underneath everything else is the everlasting pair of arms that holds up the world.
There’s no question that humility is a positive trait. But is there a cost to engaging people in a race for the title of “most humble”? And is there a danger in frequently reminding people, as many of these texts do, that humility is rewarded?

Let’s jump forward more than a millennium to an 18th-century text of Mussar, a Jewish movement concerned with ethical development. Mesillat Yesharim reminds us that humility must be authentic — it must be sincerely felt and embraced for the right reasons. Otherwise, this text warns, a person is likely to embrace humility as a performance while in truth, “his heart swells up within him saying: I am so exalted and so honorable that I no longer have any need for honor. I may as well forego it for it is already abundant within me.”

Read all of Chullin 89 on Sefaria.

This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on July 28, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.