Hello Everyone,
Yesterday we continued the discussion of asceticism (פרישות) in Rabbeinu Bachya’s Chovot Halevavot.
Rabbeinu Bachya holds that asceticism does not only mean exercising self-control in the matter of physical pleasures but it includes self-control over our behavior as well. פרישות is a matter of using all of our senses in the service of Hashem. We live in a world in which we are bombarded with messages which encourage us to consume and enjoy whatever it is that is being sold. I may be wrong, but I have the impression that the development of the Internet and portable devices such as smart-phones has brought about a generation of people who cannot stand to be alone with themselves. People seem to need the constant stimulation that these devices provide.
I therefore believe that Rabbeinu Bachya’s emphasis on “sensory”פרישות is essential for everyone and not just for the spiritually ambitious. We all need to take a step back from the electronic media and its corporate sponsors. We need to filter the messages, both overt and subliminal , to which we are constantly exposed. It would be tragic if we only existed in order to buy whatever it is that some conglomerate wants to sell. Rabbeinu Bachya says that we need to control what we see, hear and touch. As Jews this message is not new to us since we say twice a day in קריאת שמע the words ולא תתורו אחרי לבבכם ואחרי עיניכם . Usually, when this subject is studied, it is in the context of the laws of צניעות. However I think that for our generation this advice transcends those laws. The incessant commercial noise which accompanies electronic entertainment stifles independent critical thought. Why else would American culture encourage and celebrate the barbaric behavior of people at “Black Friday Sales?” The first step that we need to reclaim our individuality is to close our minds to the incessant chatter of the media by paying attention to what we allow ourselves to see and hear.
Rabbeinu Bachya sees פרישות as something essential in a Jew’s spiritual growth. He endorses fasting for those who are capable of doing so, in as much as in the Gemarah one can find opinions both for and against this practice. פרישות is not an end in itself, it is the means by which a person can free himself from becoming too attached to the pleasures of this world and consequently distracted from the service of Hashem.
In the course of the shiur someone asked in the chat-box why should we ignore the good things in this world? This is a good question and gets to the heart of פרישות. Rabbeinu Bachya himself says that פרישות needs to be practiced as a form of serving Hashem. Asceticism in the limited sense of “making do with less” does not define the concept accurately. We already saw that Rabbeinu Bachya himself writes that if a person’s livelihood depends on making attracting and keeping clients then the normal strictures of asceticism would not apply to him. The Gemarah says that Rabbi Yehudah ha-Nasi always served delicacies at his meals[1] but at the same time he was able to say about himself that he derived only the barest of pleasure from this world. פרישות has no “rules” because it is an attitude. It is the attitude that in this world we are meant to work. The world of pleasure is the World-to-Come where Hashem rewards us according to what we achieved on Earth.
As humans we have needs which the Torah requires that we satisfy. However needs can develop into wants and that is where פרישות enters the picture. פרישות is the development of an awareness that allows a person to resist the slide into the pursuit of pleasures for their own sake.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the shiur. Stuart Fischman
PS- We are almost finished with חובות הלבבות and I would appreciate hearing suggestions for the next text that we study.
[1] He needed to host Roman officials at his home.