Question 249: What is meant by “poor in spirit”?

Answer:

The simple meaning of this passage (Matthew 5:3) is that it is the humble soul that gets blessed. And the higher a saint gets in the divine life the humbler he will be. Spiritual progress which is not accompanied by humility is progress in the wrong direction. This is one of the distinctive points of Moshiach's doctrine; at the very threshold of the believer’s life, the believers gives up his self-confidence; he surrenders all hope of making himself righteous and gives himself to Moshiach to be made righteous. And his highest attainment can be expressed in the words of Paul: "I am crucified with Moshiach; nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Moshiach liveth in me."