NUM107 … humility does not entail becoming oblivious to one's own achievements and capabilities. It simply means that however superior to others one might be in certain ways, there is no justification for pride on that account. There is no reason for over emphasizing one's importance or for lording over others because of one's achievements. (Menachem Nahum of Chernobyl, Yismah Lev in his Me'or Einayim (Jerusalem: Me'or Einayim, 1966), pp. 353-354. See the English translation in Louis Jacobs, Hasidic Thought (New York: Behrman House, 1976), pp. 92-93)). Furthermore, a candid appraisal of one's superior abilities, when compared to others, should also entail an exercise in rigorous self-scrutiny regarding one's insufficiencies when compared to the achievements of others. In other words, humility is not the enemy of self-esteem, but of pride. (See Bahya Ibn Pakudah's notion that there are good and bad varieties of pride and that self-esteem necessary for spiritual development is a good form of pride. Bahya, Sefer Hovot ha-Levavot, p. 324.) Rather than condemning a person to a life of obscurity, humility can serve as a catalyst for the highest human accomplishments. In Jewish tradition, greatness and humility are not incompatible; rather they complement each other. Moses, considered by Jewish tradition to be the greatest Jew of all, is described by Scripture as the most humble of persons (this verse). According to the Talmud, God is great precisely because He is humble. Megillah 31a.