How to Cultivate Humility: a Quest for Practical Guidelines (Part 1)

This morning (11/12/21), in our "Machshavah Lab" series for women, we began what I hope will be the first shiur in a (non-consecutive) series. Out of all the good middos, anavah (humility) is considered to be the greatest - but is anavah merely a natural result of our learning and our adherence to the Torah, or are there active steps we can take to cultivate it? In this shiur we will proceed on the latter assumption. We will attempt to understand anavah from both a theoretical and a practical standpoint. In this first installment we reviewed the Rambam's approach to gaivah (arrogance) and anavah, as set forth in the Mishneh Torah. We then began our analysis of Pirkei Avos 4:4 with the commentary of the Abravanel. Today's shiur was devoted to setting up the sugya with the facts and questions. Next time we hope to begin answering the questions we raised today.