What the Rav said:
This is the way to start all of our Service of Hashem.
When a person has no ga’avah (pride/arrogance). No feelings of superiority thinking that what I am doing is better than anyone else or that I am greater than anyone else.
I was born with these circumstances and these conditions and these parents.
Hashem helps me so that I can sit and learn, but others aren’t guilty.
I believe that everything that every other Jew does is better than my Service of Hashem.
I join myself to every other Jew in the world.
In this way, a person receives such enlightenment in all things, feelings of love, and he’ll feel such love for Hashem and such love for Am Yisrael.
My thoughts:
Our sages say that learning Torah can be ‘sam chaim’ or ‘sam mavet’ (a drug of life or a drug of death).
It’s a sam chaim when we learn without ga’avah, and the opposite if a person learns with ga’avah.
The secret to Serving Hashem is only with humility.
Moshe Rabbenu was the most humble man to walk the earth.
David Hamelech is also known for his absolute humility before Hashem.
Greatness comes with humility, and the opposite also holds true.