We continue in the Bet Halevi, with his discussion of humility and arrogance. He quotes the Gemara that tells us, “ Anyone that has (in him) arrogance, it’s as if he is worshipping idols. ” Where do we see that? There's a concept in the Torah called the Gezera Shava , which is when we compare two words, and through that comparison, we learn something. For example, we put our Tefilin, “ ben Enecha/ between your eyes.” Now, ‘ between your eyes’ doesn't mean literally between your eyes. How do we know that? Because, in lather place, it says, “ Don’t tear hair out on your head between your eyes.” Most people do not have a lot of hair between their eyes, and it wasn't the custom to pull out hair (over the dead) in between one's eyes anyway. It was on the spot on the scalp, in the middle of the eyes. So just like the word Ben Enecha , regarding pulling your hair out, means o n the spot of the scalp, so too for the words Ben Enecha/ between your eyes regarding the Tefilin- that's called a Gezera Shava. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai says the Torah says, “ It’s an abomination of God, whoever has arrogance, ” and concerning idolatry, it says “Do not bring an abomination into your house.” So we see the word abomination refers to idol s, and we see that arrogance is called an abomination . So that means arrogance is like an abomination . The Chatam Sofer says that sometimes we see generations being punished in a way that doesn't seem to make sense. What did they do that was so terrible? He answers that it's these kind of small sins that are like big sins that we suffer from. Rav Yochanan goes a little further and says, it's not just idolatry. Idolaters believed in God, but they added a partner, to partner God up with something else. So the first rabbi saying, it's like you're in idolatry you're partnering somebody else. Who's the somebody else? The Shelah explains that somebody else is yourself . You are taking credit and therefore you're worshiping God and yourself . So those are the two partners. Rav Yachanan says even more than that. He says, “You're denying God's existence totally,” as the pasuk says, “ You're going to become arrogant and forget Hashem. ” And the Bet Halevi, in his commentary on the Torah ( Shemuel 32, 4), explains that denial of God comes from arrogance. As we've said in the past, when one is arrogant, he says, “ It was my strength and my power that made this money.” That means arrogance is worse than ideology. Because it’s not, “Me and God.” There comes a point where the person doesn't even acknowledge God! He doesn't even recognize God in the picture. There's a story that Rav Matityahu Sallomon tells, of a man that he knew in England before he came to America. This man used to pray a very, very long Amida . But this man was a cutthroat in business and it always bothered the Rabbi. The man looked like he was such a religious devout man. He believed in God… what was he praying so long for? The Rabbi finally got the courage up to ask him, “ What are you praying so long for? ” And his answer was, “I know, of course there’s a God. I'm very smart in my business. I know what I'm doing. But of course, there’s a God. So I pray to God, ‘God just please don't interfere. Let me run my business. I know You can mess things up. Just don't interfere.’” That's a kofer . He really believes that he's doing it. Another story that I saw was brought down by Rav Shmuel Berenbaum: There was a very wealthy man who lived in the times of the Rabbi of Lida. The man told this Rabbi, “I serve God out of love, not out of fear.” The Rabbi asked what he meant. He answered, “I have tremendous amount of wealth. I have insurance…. I'm diversified. There's really nothing that could happen to cause me to lose my wealth, and therefore I serve God out of love.” A few months after that statement, a Russian minister was walking on a bridge that this man owned. The bridge collapsed and the Russian minister drowned. They accused this wealthy man of treason, of being a spy for the Poles and killing a Russian minister. He had to flee the country, penniless. He met this rabbi years later on and he shared the continuation of the story with him- that we need Hashem. Obviously Hashem can do anything. This man who spoke to Rabbi Salomon knew that lesson. ‘ Of course, Hashem could do anything, but if He just doesn't interfere, I'll do fine on my own.’ That is heresy! To believe that we could do fine on our own, just God, don't interfere is full fledged, My strength, my power. That's arrogance and that's what we're trying to dispel. And again, the only way to do that is by working on Emunah and Bitachon. That's why we're going back and forth on this topic- because they're two extremely related concepts. . Have a wonderful day.