NUM108 Another aspect of Jewish modesty, tznuit, is related to another Hebrew word often translated into English as modesty, anavah, which is synonymous with humility. Jewish modesty, therefore, involves Jewish humility. What exactly is Jewish humility? Many people mistakenly believe that a humble person is one who thinks very little of himself or herself, but this cannot possibly be correct. It is written in the Torah [this verse] that Moses was the humblest of all men on the face of the earth. It would be very difficult to claim that Moses thought of himself as a very simple, low person, no better than anyone else. Moses was certainly conscious that God chose him to be the Jewish leader to take the Jews out of Egypt, which after an initial reluctance, Moses did in a very admirable manner. Could it be possible that Moses actually thought he was no better or no more spiritual than anyone else? After all, it was Moses himself who wrote down these words (dictated by God) that he was the humblest of all men. Clearly, Moses knew he was a great man. He was greater than any other prophet in history (Numbers 12:7-8 and Deuteronomy 34:10). Moses certainly wasn't foolish enough to think he was nothing out of the ordinary. He was a realist who understood his greatness. Therefore, Jewish humility cannot be defined as a feeling of self-worthlessness. What, then, it is Jewish humility? The quality that made Moses truly humble is that he did not ascribe any of his greatest to himself. He understood that all of his greatness came from the Almighty. This is true humility: acknowledging one's greatness, talents, and achievements in a realistic manner, but attributing all of life's achievements to God, and not to oneself. Even though man must work hard to develop his or her talents and the intelligence he or she was given, without these innate gifts (physical or spiritual, from God, all the hard work in the world could not help a person achieve greatness. When Moses did sin in the Torah when he hit the rock, his sin, according to Nachmanides quoting Rabbi Chanenel (commentary on Numbers 20:8), was that Moses caused the people to think that it was he and not God who performed the miracle of extracting the water from the stone. That is the meaning in the verses that explain the sin (Numbers 20:12 and Deuteronomy 32:51) "that you… did not sanctify Me (God) in the eyes of the people." Therefore, it [i.e. Jewish modesty] is this quality--understanding that one's achievements not only come from the self, but are attributable to others as well, especially to God.