One of the sources for humility is in this week's Parasha (chapter 17) where we tell the king not to become a haughty towards his brethren. לבלתי רום לבבו מאחיו
The Ramban says this is a source for the sin of arrogance; if the Torah tells the king (who, so to say, has a right to be arrogant, because he's the leader) not to be arrogant, surely other people should not be arrogant.
He goes on to say that Only God deserves greatness and uplifting, and only He should be praised.
But there's another source in the Torah for avoiding arrogance (chapter 8, 11-14), where it says, Be careful lest you forget Hashem your God and become arrogant So if it says you're not allowed to be arrogant, in a clear pasuk referring to arrogance in general, why mention this prohibition in the parsha of the king?
The Sfat Emet in Parashat Ekev answers that the first pasuk is saying, “Don't be arrogant towards God. Don't forget about God.”
So fine. That's one thing. “I'm not going to be arrogant towards God. I realize God's in charge. I'll humble myself. I'll bow in the Amida. I'll give Him the credit.”
But there is another type of arrogance – arrogance towards people, and that's a whole separate story. “I might humble myself before God, but that doesn't mean I'm going to humble myself before people.”
There's a story told by the Sfat Emet, (possibly in jest), about a rabbi who was saying vidui - ashamnu, bagadnu etc” and crying bitterly. The gabbai saw him and thought, “Wow, I thought this rabbi was a big tzaddik. But look how he's crying when he says that he laughed and made fun of people. And I thought he was a good guy...” And so the gabbai decided not to give the rabbi Shishi that week, or the week after. Eventually the rabbi starts to wonder what's going on, and asks the gabbai about it.
The gabbai answered, “Well, I saw the way you were crying in vidui, and realized that you're not such a tzaddik after all.”
The rabbi said, “No, I was crying to God; and when it comes to God, I'm a nobody. But as far as the rest of the congregation, I deserve shishi,I'm better than they are!”
Of course, whether this really happened or not, the message is that sometimes we humble ourselves before God, but we don't humble ourselves before other people.
We must be humble both in the eyes of God and the eyes of people. Therefore, we need two separate pesukim, to teach us that when we look at somebody else, not to think of our success (and maybe his lack of success), or that we’re smarter than him, we’re wealthier than him, etc. As the Ramban says, if anything, we should think the opposite. If you're smarter than him, and you know more, then you're more guilty than he is, because when he sins, it's by mistake. When you do it, it's on purpose.
And that's why there is a double warning not to be arrogant, not towards God, and not towards people.
