Maimonides, Hilchot De'ot
“The path of the upright is one of moderation in every trait, so that each trait is equidistant from either extreme and not close to either. Therefore the early sages commanded that human beings should put their traits before themselves constantly and direct them to the middle road, shvil hazahav, so that each person will be complete.”
(16) So don’t overdo goodness and don’t act the wise man to excess, or you may be dumfounded.
Alan Morinis, Everyday Holiness (p. 174). Shambhala.
things are healthy in moderation but potentially damaging in either excess or abstention. Much research says that a moderate intake of alcohol can be good for your health, though we all know the sorts of diseases and problems born of alcoholism. The same is true for dieting, which can maintain a healthy weight and can also devolve into anorexia. At the other end of the scale, obesity is now a major public health issue. Self-esteem is a necessary spiritual strength, while self-debasement or arrogance veer away from the balanced middle range. So it is with many other things we do in our lives. Except for what is harmful in any measure, which ought to be totally avoided, in most other cases the ideal route is the middle one, neither abstaining in the absolute nor indulging to the hilt.
In his Torah commentary this week, Rabbi Mark Katz points out that the practices of fasting can lead us to asceticism while the festive holidays filled with food and wine can lead us to hedonism if we are careful.
THE DANGER OF ASCETISICM
Rabbi Marc Katz, "Sh’vil HaZahav—Moderation: Affliction, Elevation, and Celebration," in Block, Rabbi Barry H.. The Mussar Torah Commentary: A Spiritual Path to Living a Meaningful and Ethical Life (p. 193). CCAR Press. Kindle Edition.
Over the course of time, “self-denial”—or in some translations, “affliction”—has come to mean five distinct categories of behavior we should avoid on Yom Kippur: we should not (1) imbibe food or drink, (2) bathe, (3) anoint [or wear perfumes], (4) wear [leather] shoes, or (5) have sexual relations.2 Because they are so ingrained in Jewish practice, refraining from these behaviors might seems like self-evident fulfillments of the biblical command. However, the Jewish tradition could have chosen any number of other activities that equally fulfill the mandate to afflict ourselves—for example, sleep deprivation, ice baths, or self-flagellation. In fact, our Rabbis even consider briefly the possibility of sitting for prolonged times in the sun or shade on Yom Kippur. However, what separates these options from the five adopted categories of afflictions is that the latter form a sort of middle ground. They serve the purpose, set out by our Torah, to practice self-denial, while remaining firmly planted in the everyday events of our world. Practiced only for one day, they do not go so far as to cross into the ascetic.
Judah Halevi, Kuzari 3:5
The fast of this day is such as brings one near to the angels, because it is spent in humility and contrition, standing, kneeling, praising and singing. All his physical faculties are denied their natural requirements, being entirely abandoned to religious service, as if the animal element had disappeared. The fast of a pious man is such that eye, ear, and tongue share in it, that he regards nothing except that which brings him near to God.
Rabbi Marc Katz
Here, fasting is not merely a form of self-denial. Rather, the act of restraint is meant to elevate the one who fasts to unknown spiritual heights, to the level of angels. The Rabbis feared that one who stands in the place of angels may never want to leave again. Thus, many medieval commentators advocate vigorously for the restriction of Yom Kippur observances to one day in the Diaspora—different from the rest of the holidays, which are celebrated for two days. They know that, if left to their own devices, many would put their bodies in danger by reaching for the spiritual release that comes with starvation. As Moshe Isserles writes in his gloss to the Shulchan Aruch, “There are those who are strict and seek to observe two days of Yom Kippur. . . . But they shouldn’t behave so stringently because of the fear that they might fall into danger.”
Alan Morinis, p. 180
Though not condoning asceticism, the Mussar teachers do speak of a kind of abstinence that is good and valuable. The ability to restrain ourselves is a necessary soul-trait and the very one that is often invoked to guide a person who seeks to counter the tendency to overindulge.17 But this capacity to hold ourselves back is distinguished from asceticism. Abstinence can maintain or restore the middle way, whereas asceticism rejects it.
When we starved our bodies, did You pay no heed?”
Because on your fast day
You see to your business
And oppress all your laborers! (4) Because you fast in strife and contention,
And you strike with a wicked fist!
Your fasting today is not such
As to make your voice heard on high. (5) Is such the fast I desire,
A day for men to starve their bodies?
Is it bowing the head like a bulrush
And lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Do you call that a fast,
A day when the LORD is favorable? (6) No, this is the fast I desire:
To unlock fetters of wickedness,
And untie the cords of the yoke-a
To let the oppressed go free;
To break off every yoke. (7) It is to share your bread with the hungry,
And to take the wretched poor into your home;
When you see the naked, to clothe him,
And not to ignore your own kin.
Alan Morinis, p.180
What’s the problem with asceticism? One is that the ascetic (consciously or unconsciously) is rejecting the gifts he or she has received in life, all of which ultimately derive from God. Judaism does not condone the extreme rejection of desire and pleasure because it views this physical-material realm where we find ourselves as true, valuable, and spiritual—not an illusion to be transcended, as some other religious traditions suggest. The Mussar teachers tell us that it is within this world, rather than in rejection of it, that we can elevate our spiritual natures.
GUARDING AGAINST HEDONISM
Rabbi Marc Katz,
If Yom Kippur draws dangerously close to asceticism, Sukkot tempts us with hedonism. Therefore, it, too, needs strictures to keep our extremist tendencies in check. Our Torah commands us to be happy on Sukkot: “You shall rejoice (us’machtem) before the Eternal your God seven days” (Leviticus 23:40).
But the belly of the wicked is empty.
Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Yom Tov 6:18
When a person eats and drinks [in celebration of a holiday], he is obligated to feed converts, orphans, widows, and others who are destitute and poor. In contrast, a person who locks the gates of his courtyard and eats and drinks with his children and his wife, without feeding the poor and the embittered, is [not indulging in] rejoicing associated with a mitzvah, but rather the rejoicing of his gut.
רַב כָּהֲנָא רָמֵי: כְּתִיב ״תִּירָשׁ״, וְקָרֵינַן ״תִּירוֹשׁ״. זָכָה — נַעֲשָׂה רֹאשׁ, לֹא זָכָה — נַעֲשָׂה רָשׁ.
Rav Kahana raised a contradiction: It is written as tirash but we read it tirosh. This should be understood as follows: If one merits and drinks appropriately, he is made a head [rosh]; if one does not merit and does not drink appropriately, he is made poor [rash].
Rabbi Mark Katz
"...when our inclination is toward hedonism, we are commanded to provide hospitality. The antidote to overeating and drinking is not to abstain from them altogether, but rather to share them. True happiness means gladdening the hearts of others, even when we enliven our own."
Alan Morinis, p.177
The Mussar teachers tell us that the secret to becoming masters of moderation is to cultivate sensitivity to the inner processes of desire as they arise within us. They urge us to be aware of the interior course that an impulse runs, starting as a tiny sensation and eventually growing to a full-blown indulgence. This is what prompts Rabbi Yitzchok Isaac Sher to write that a person “cannot undertake to follow the mussar way of life until he fully understands the processes of thought formation and the modes of thought development.”