Who Can Say I Have Purified My Heart and the Reward of Humility

"Who can say, I have purified my heart" (Proverbs 20:9). May the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, be blessed forever and to all eternity, for purity and holiness are His, and He searches hearts and kidneys, and He purifies Israel. Solomon said: David my father said before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the worlds! "Create for me a pure heart, O God" (Psalms 51:12). He asked improperly, and when he knew that he had asked improperly, he went back and said, "Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin" (Psalms 51:4). What did the Holy Spirit answer him? It said to him: David, since you have lowered yourself over the request you made, I give you a pure heart. The Holy Spirit also said of him, "The LORD has sought for Himself a man after His own heart" (1 Samuel 13:14). When Solomon saw that David had lowered himself, he too said, "Who can say, I have purified my heart, I am cleansed from my sin." What reward did he take for this? "And Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD as king" (1 Chronicles 29:23). Now is there a person who can sit on the throne of the Holy One, blessed be He? Rather, just as the throne of the Holy One, blessed be He, rules over the whole world, so Solomon ruled over the whole world, as it is said, "For he had dominion over all the region beyond the River, from Tiphsah even to Gaza" (1 Kings 5:4). Now are not Tiphsah and Gaza set right next to each other? Just as a person goes out from Tiphsah and travels to the east, and from the east to the west, and from the east to the north, and from the north to the south, circling and rising until he comes up to Gaza, so Solomon went and ruled and circled the whole world from beginning to end. Rabbi Yose the Galilean said: Why did Solomon merit all this? Because he did not raise up his mind and his heart before the Holy One, blessed be He. And are these not matters of inference from minor to major? If Solomon, the father of wisdom and the father of prophecy, because he lowered himself, merited to rule from one end of the world to the other, then other people all the more so. From here the sages said: Happy is the person who lowers himself and does not raise himself up, so that he may merit before the Holy One, blessed be He.