T246 PNC - Sometimes a Person Needs to Have Greatness for Himself

Sometimes a person actually needs to assume an air of greatness for himself, as Scripture says of King Yehoshafat: "And his heart was lifted up in the ways of Hashem" (II Chronicles 17:6). This sounds backwards — isn't humility the foundation? But Rebbe Nachman explains: when a person needs to ascend to a new spiritual attainment, he must first forget what he already knew. The Talmud (Bava Metzia 85a) says Rabbi Zeira fasted in order to forget the Talmud of Babylonia, because he was about to receive the deeper Torah of Eretz Yisrael. Greatness functions like that fast — it makes a person forget his old wisdom ("anyone who is haughty, his wisdom departs from him," Pesachim 66b), clearing space for a higher level. But this is razor-edge work: real arrogance is a severe sin and would simply destroy his wisdom and turn him into a fool. The skill is to use "greatness" only as a tool to forget the old wisdom — while remaining genuinely humble inside.