Welcome to Daily Bitachon, as we go on our journey of working on arrogance. The Bet Halevi, in his essay on arrogance, starts off with the words, “ Arrogance is from the most severe sins in the Torah.” That's a heavy statement, because we don't even look at arrogance as a sin. One might ask, Where does it say, ‘Thou shall not be arrogant?’ Arrogance is a sin. And it's interesting that in all three essays, the Bet Halevi starts with the same point. Bitachon is a Mitzvah, Ahavat Yisrael is a Mitzvah, and Ga’avah/Arrogance is an Averah/a sin. The Bet Halevi took Mitzvot and Averot every seriously, and if Ga’avah is a serious sin, then it's something to work on, because someone could be transgressing this sin constantly. How exactly is it a sin? We have different lists of the 613 Mitzvot. The Rambam had a list. The Ramban had a list and many rabbis have their lists. One of them is the Sefer Mitzvot Hagadol from the Rabbi of Kusi, who writes, “ Originally, I did not plan on putting arrogance and humility on the list of the 613.” (And neither did the Rambam) But he says, “ When I was in the middle of my work, I had 4 word dream. “Hineh Shachachta Et HaIkar/You forgot the most fundamental mitzvah. What is that? Beware not to forget Hashem your God. This means one of the 613 is a warning Don't forget God. And he said, “I tried to figure out what that meant. When I looked in the Gemara Sotah 5A, it says, “ What is the warning against being arrogant?” The pasuk says, “ You’re going to become arrogant and forget God . And since you’re not allowed to forget God, A equals B. If I tell you that you're not allowed to forget God, and arrogance causes you to forget God, you're not allowed to be arrogant. What does it mean not to be arrogant? The Sefer Mitzvot HaGadol says, “ When God showers us with goodness, we should not say, ‘It was my hard work that brought this about,’ and take the credit.” That's what we're talking about. He quotes from the pasuk in Devarim (6,11) that says, “ You're going to come into Eretz Yisrael and there will be houses full of good things. You're going to eat and become satisfied. Beware that you shouldn't forget God, And don't become arrogant and say in your heart, “Kohi V’Otzem Yadi/My strength, my power amassed my wealth.” “We see from here ,”he says, “ that if a person is arrogant with anything that God has graced him with, whether it's his money, his beauty or his wisdom, he has transgressed this sin.” Therefore, it’s quite serious. And although the Rambam does not count it in his list of the 613 Mitzvot , in his sefer Yad HaHazaka , on the laws Hilchot De’ot (chapter 2, Halacha 3), he says there are certain Middot that you have to go to the extreme for, and one of them is arrogance. He says that's why Moshe Rabbenu was praised, that he was Anav Meod/extremely humble, not just humble , but extremely humble. And he says, “Whoever is arrogant denies God's existence , and he quotes our pasuk, וְרָ֖ם לְבָבֶ֑ךָ וְשָֽׁכַחְתָּ֙ אֶת־ה׳ You’re forgetting God. The Pele Yoetz, on the topic of arrogance, says that people say, “ I'm not arrogant. Arrogance means you walk with your head up high, waving your hands back and forth, barking at people .” He says, the truth is, it's hard to figure out if the person's arrogant or not, but, How do I know that there's a father around? If I see a child . You can't have a kid without a father and a mother. So, what are the children of Ga’avah? Anger and Hakpadah , which means that being exacting with people. If someone sits in your seat, you get upset. You don’t necessarily even get outwardly upset, it may just bother you in your heart. These are indicators, says the Pele Yoetz, that the person has Ga’avah . Therefore, it's something to talk about, and something to work on. The Hovot Halevavot, in his sixth gate, the Gate of Humility (chapter 1), says that Humility also has ‘children’ that show up on the limbs: being soft spoken, using a low tone, not getting angry, not taking revenge. These are all indicators of the positive or negative traits of arrogance and humility. And therefore, it's our responsibility to be cognizant of this and work on it. As we said, it's from the most serious of sins. And obviously if it causes one to forget God, it's quite serious. Have a wonderful day.