Hello Everyone,
Yesterday we continued with our study of the role of asceticism in the system of Rabbeinu Bachya in his חובות הלבבות.
Rabbeinu Bachya writes that there are three ways in which a person can use the items of this world.
The first way is to make use of the most basic, simple and unrefined necessities of life without deriving any pleasure from them at all.
Another way to make use of the things of this world is to avail oneself of the “finer things in life” but in moderation. We all need to eat, but instead of subsiding on bread, water and uncooked vegetables a person could eat roasted meats and drink wine.
A third way would be to indulge in luxuries to the point of gluttony.
Rabbeinu Bachya writes that we should strive to live the lives of the first type, in other words, we should strive to be ascetics in our lifestyles. We should train ourselves to look at luxuries as items which are forbidden by the Torah. The reason for this is that the pursuit of pleasures leads people to ignore their religious obligations. Rabbeinu Bachya cites the example of King Solomon in order to prove this idea. The Torah forbids the king to accumulate great wealth, large stables of horses and a multitude of wives since these pursuits can lead a king away from the service of Hashem. The story of King Solomon is one of the most well-known of all the stories in the Bible. When inherited the throne Hashem asked him what wish He should grant him, King Solomon asked for the wisdom needed to be a just king and Hashem granted him that wish along with great wealth and honors. The Biblical story goes on to describe that despite his wisdom, King Solomon allowed his wives to lead him astray. Chazal ask, how could this have happened to a person who was the wisest person of his time? They explained[1] pithily: King Solomon read the verse, “…lest he turn his heart away” and said ,”I won’t turn my heart away.”
If a person as wise as King Solomon could be carried away by the pursuit of pleasures how much more so could we be carried away by the pursuit of pleaure.
Despite his endorsement of asceticism Rabbeinu Bachya allows that asceticism needs to be adapted to the demands of life. We learned several months ago that Rabbeinu Bachya holds that Hashem expects to work to earn our livings. We learned two weeks ago that Rabbeinu Bachya holds that people who practice an asceticism that is so extreme that they withdraw from human society are totally wrong. What we do to earn our living is one aspect of serving Hashem. So if we need to take clients out to dinner there is nothing wrong with taking them to a fine restaurant or to wear an expensive suit to the meeting. Asceticism means to abstain from pursuing “idle” pleasures. Asceticism does not require us to behave in a self-defeating fashion.
Rabbeinu Bachya then went on to explain that asceticism should govern our actions and not just our appetites. He began by describing “ascetic speech.” It is a commonplace that sometimes we are tired of hearing about that we can all cause tremendous harm with careless speech. Rabbeinu Bachya reviews all the פסוקים that discuss the need to be careful about what we say and then proposes a technique that can help us to speak wisely . He proposes that we make an effort to remember what we say during the course of a day and review it at night. By reviewing everything that we say we will become aware of how much work we need to do to. We will become aware of all the lashon hara, half-truths (if not outright lies) and insults that we say. This honest confrontation with our verbal shortcomings will motivate us to take more care with our speech so that we will become “verbal ascetics.”
This is a summary of yesterday’s shiur. Thanks to everyone who took part in it. Stuart Fischman
[1] תלמוד בבלי מסכת סנהדרין דף כא עמוד ב
מפני מה לא נתגלו טעמי תורה שהרי שתי מקראות נתגלו טעמן נכשל בהן גדול העולם כתיב לא ירבה לו נשים אמר שלמה אני ארבה ולא אסור וכתיב ויהי לעת זקנת שלמה נשיו הטו את לבבו וכתיב לא ירבה לו סוסים ואמר שלמה אני ארבה ולא אשיב וכתיב ותצא מרכבה ממצרים בשש וגו’
Rabbeinu Bachya does not cite this Gemarah. I only mention it because I think it helps to make the point clear.