Why We Should Think Twice Before Bragging

"Why should a living man complain, a man for his sins?" (Lamentations 3:39). Rabbi Abba bar Yudan said: Why should a man complain when he is alive? It is enough for a man that he is alive. Rabbi Berekhiah said: "My life is in Your hand," and he yet lives and complains! Rabbi Levi said: Why should a man complain against the One who lives forever? Rather, if a man wishes to complain, let it be "a man for his sins" (Lamentations ibid.). Rabbi Yudan said: Let him stand like a mighty man and confess his sins, and let him not complain. Rabbi said: The Holy One, blessed be He, said: They are grumblers, the children of grumblers. With Adam, the first man, I was occupied to make him a helper - "I will make him a helper corresponding to him" (Genesis 2:18) - and he grumbled before Me, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave to me" (ibid. 3:12). Jacob too did the same to Me: I was occupied with his son, to make him king over Egypt - "And Joseph was the ruler over the land" (ibid. 42:6) - and he grumbled before Me and said, "My way is hidden from the LORD" (Isaiah 40:27). His children too did the same to Me in the wilderness: I was occupied with them to select for them light bread, in the manner that kings eat, so that none of them should be coarse and afflicted by looseness of the bowels, and they grumbled before Me and said, "Our soul loathes this light bread" (Numbers 21:5). Zion too does the same to Me: I am occupied with her to remove the kingdoms from the world - have I not already removed Babylon and Media and Greece, and am I not destined to remove this wicked kingdom? - yet she grumbles before Me and says, He has abandoned me, He has forgotten me, "And Zion said, The LORD has abandoned me, and the Lord has forgotten me" (Isaiah 49:14).