GEN1045 … one should be aware of one’s own insignificance when set against the panorama of the cosmos, when compared to the infinity of God…. . But, in the Jewish view, awareness of the insignificance of the individual when set against the cosmos should engender neither nihilism nor despair, but humility.   It should stimulate one to create an artful existence, a life characterized by purpose, meaning, and service to others.   Jewish thought encourages balance between pride and self-depreciation.  The mean between arrogance and self-abasement is humility.   Maimonides, Eight Chapters, Gorfinkle, ch. 4, p. 55; but compare, Maimonides, Mishneh Torah-Sefer ha-Mada, Laws of Personal Development 2:3.  Discussing the biblical citation “I am dust and ashes” [this verse] and the Talmudic statement, “Every person should consider himself or herself as if the world had been created for his or her own sake,” Sanhedrin 37a the hasidic mater, Bunam of Przysucha, taught: “Each person should have two pockets.   In each pocket he or she should carry a slip of paper on which is written one of these two citations.   As the occasion arises, one should extract and read the slip appropriate to the specific situation.   If one becomes too haughty and proud, one should be aware that “I am dust and ashes,” and if one becomes too self-abusing and depressed, then one should extract the slip that reads, “For my sake the world was created.” Buber, Tales of the Hasidim: Later Masters, pp. 249-250.   HTBAJ 88