“Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself?” (Eccl. 7:16). Do not be too much of a tzaddik, which is to say, do not so elevate your sense of personal purity to disregard or exclude the needs of others. We are never to be compulsively religious or enslaved to outer forms of spirituality: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27), which means that the commandment is “for life,” and we find life and liberty in the direction (Torah) of the Holy Spirit. And do not be too much of a chacham – a wise person - for the way of wisdom is found in humility and love: “If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know” (1 Cor. 8:2), and “if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself” (Gal. 6:3).
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 17:03:27 +0000
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