T95 PNC - When Leaders Become Arrogant (Divine Checks on Pride, 2 segs)

A teaching heard from Rabbeinu himself: When the providers (parnasim) and leaders of the generation become arrogant, then the Holy One, Blessed be He, raises up against them people who will argue with them and speak critically about them — in order that they not become presumptuous in their own minds. As the Sages said (Yoma 22b): 'They do not appoint a provider over the community unless a box of creeping things (sheratzim) is hanging behind him' — meaning there is something unseemly in his past that can be used against him if he becomes haughty.

The deeper secret: the 'box of creeping things hanging behind' the leader is not merely a tactic of humiliation, but a structural feature of divine governance. A leader who has this 'box' — this vulnerability — can never become wholly arrogant, because he is always aware that his position is contingent. This is also the aspect of the Talmudic teaching (Sukkah 45b): 'I have seen the people of high levels (ba'alei ma'aleh) and they are few.' True leaders are rare because the temptation of arrogance is so strong. The critics that Hashem raises are therefore doing holy work — they are the 'creeping things' that keep the leader honest.