When we are aware that it is God who blesses us with our wealth and success, we become less arrogant. On these occasions we also buy the most special food we can afford, and we wear our best clothes, clean and pressed. Every Friday night, when our family and guests gather for the Sabbath meal, the table is set with a clean white tablecloth and special Sabbath food. My children are squeaky clean from head to toe, and are dressed in white shirts and dark pants. When I buy a new dress, I save it to first wear on the Sabbath.
Character traits are fundamental to the performance of mitzvahs and to Torah principles.
Conversely, all sin stems from unimproved character traits. The prime purpose of man's life is to constantly strive to break his bad traits. Before we learn Torah, we think we already have mostly good character traits. But when we learn how our ancestors behaved, we realize that there is great room for improvement.