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26 Old Mill Road, Great Neck, NY 11023 (516) 487-6100 Shabbat Announcements Naso 5779
physical world that He created that is, in the first chapter of These are not just two types of person but two ways of
Genesis, seven times pronounced “good.” It believes not in understanding the moral life itself. Is the aim of the moral life
renouncing pleasure but in sanctifying it. to achieve personal perfection? Or is it to create gracious
relationships and a decent, just, compassionate society? The
What is much more puzzling is the position of Maimonides, intuitive answer of most people would be to say: both. What
who holds both views, positive and negative, in the same makes Maimonides so acute a thinker is that he realizes that
book, his law code the Mishneh Torah. In Hilchot Deot, he you cannot have both – that they are in fact different
adopts the negative position of R. Eliezer HaKappar: A person enterprises. A saint may give all his money away to the poor.
may say: “Desire, honor, and the like are bad paths to follow But what about the members of the saint’s own family? They
and remove a person from the world; therefore, I will may suffer because of his extreme self-denial. A saint may
completely separate myself from them and go to the other refuse to fight in battle. But what about the saint’s country
extreme.” As a result, he does not eat meat or drink wine or and its defense? A saint may forgive all crimes committed
take a wife or live in a decent house or wear decent clothing… against him. But what then about the rule of law, and
This too is bad, and it is forbidden to choose this way. Yet in justice? Saints are supremely virtuous people, considered as
Hilchot Nezirut he rules in accordance with the positive individuals. Yet you cannot build a society out of saints alone.
evaluation of R. Elazar: “Whoever vows to God [to become a Indeed, saints are not really interested in society. They have
Nazirite] by way of holiness, does well and is praiseworthy… chosen a different, lonely, self-segregating path. I know no
Indeed Scripture considers him the equal of a prophet.” How moral philosopher who makes this point as clearly as
does any writer come to adopt contradictory positions in a Maimonides – not Plato or Aristotle, not Descartes or Kant.
single book, let alone one as resolutely logical as Maimonides?
It was this deep insight that led Maimonides to his seemingly
The answer lies in a remarkable insight of Maimonides into contradictory evaluations of the Nazirite. The Nazirite has
the nature of the moral life as understood by Judaism. What chosen, at least for a period, to adopt a life of extreme self-
Maimonides saw is that there is not a single model of the denial. He is a saint, a chassid. He has adopted the path of
virtuous life. He identifies two, calling them respectively the personal perfection. That is noble, commendable, and
way of the saint (chassid) and the way of the sage exemplary. That is why Maimonides calls him “praiseworthy”
(chacham). The saint is a person of extremes. Maimonides and “the equal of a prophet.” But it is not the way of the sage
defines chessed as extreme behavior – good behavior, to be – and you need sages if you seek to perfect society. The sage
sure, but conduct in excess of what strict justice requires. So, is not an extremist – because he or she realizes that there
for example, “If one avoids haughtiness to the utmost extent are other people at stake. There are the members of one’s
and becomes exceedingly humble, he is termed a saint own family as well as the others within one’s community.
[chassid].” The sage is a different kind of person altogether. There are colleagues at work. There is a country to defend
He or she follows the “golden mean,” the “middle way,” the and a society to help build. The sage knows he or she cannot
way of moderation and balance. He or she avoids the leave all these commitments behind to pursue a life of
extremes of cowardice on the one hand, recklessness on the solitary virtue. In a strange way, saintliness is a form of self-
other, and thus acquires the virtue of courage. He or she indulgence. We are called on by God to live in the world, not
avoids miserliness in one direction, prodigality in the other, escape from it; in society not seclusion; to strive to create a
and instead chooses the middle way of generosity. The sage balance among the conflicting pressures on us, not to focus
knows the twin dangers of too much and too little, excess and on some while neglecting the others. Hence, while from a
deficiency. He or she weighs the conflicting pressures and personal perspective the Nazirite is a saint, from a societal
avoids the extremes. perspective he is, at least figuratively, a “sinner” who has to
bring an atonement offering.
Maimonides lived the life he preached. We know from his
Great Neck Yoetzet Halacha Lisa Septimus
Welcomes your questions about mikvah, writings that he longed for seclusion. There were years when
observance of taharat mishpacha (halacha relating he worked day and night to write his Commentary to the
to married life) and women’s health, as it connects Mishnah, and later the Mishneh Torah. Yet he also recognized
to Jewish law. Reach out to her at: his responsibilities to his family and to the community. In his
Phone: 516.415.1111
famous letter to his would-be translator Ibn Tibbon, he gives
Email: greatneckyoetzet@gmail.com.
an account of his typical day and week – in which he had to
Great Neck Synagogue carry a double burden as a world-renowned physician and an
26 Old Mill Road, Great Neck , NY 11023 internationally sought halachist and sage. He worked to
516-487-6100 exhaustion. Maimonides was a sage who longed to be a saint,
but knew he could not be, if he was to honor his
Rabbi Dale Polakoff, Rabbi responsibilities to his people. That is a profound and moving
Rabbi Ian Lichter, Assistant Rabbi judgement, and one that still has the power to inspire today.
Dr. Ephraim Wolf, z”l, Rabbi Emeritus
Yitzy Spinner, Cantor
Eleazer Schulman, z”l, Cantor Emeritus
Rabbi Sholom Jensen, Youth Director
Zehava & Dr. Michael Atlas, Youth Directors
Mark Twersky, Executive Director
Dr. James Frisch, Assistant Director
Erran Kagan, President
Harold Domnitch, Chairman of the Board
Lisa Septimus, Yoetzet Halacha 516-415-1111