Occasionally, it is necessary for a person to have pride, as it is written, “He also took pride in [following] God’s ways” (2 Chronicles 17:6). This is as beneficial as fasting. For when someone must achieve an insight or ascend to some spiritual level, it is necessary to forget his earlier wisdom. As we find, Rabbi Zeira fasted in order to forget the Babylonian Talmud (Bava Metzia 85a). This is because he had to achieve an even greater insight—i.e., the Torah of the Land of Israel. And pride helps, like the aforementioned fasting. The reason is that pride too causes him to forget his wisdom, as our Sages, of blessed memory, said (Pesachim 66b): Anyone who is prideful, his wisdom leaves him.

However, this requires added wisdom, because pride is certainly a very serious prohibition. If he truly becomes prideful, his wisdom will certainly leave him entirely and he will not achieve the insight, but become a bona fide fool. Therefore, he must have abundant skill for this, [to know] how he should behave such that he has pride only so that he might forget the earlier wisdom he needs to forget, as explained above, and despite this be a truly humble person.