Pemikiran Yahudi Ulangan 15:8: Eight Chapters & Tiferet Yisrael

Likewise, all that is contained in the Law concerning the giving of tithes, the gleaning of the harvest, the forgotten sheaves, the single grapes, and the small bunches in the vineyards for the poor, the law of the Sabbatical year, and of the Jubilee, the giving of charity according to the wants of the needy one, all these approach the extreme of lavishness to be practised in order that we may depart far from its opposite, stinginess, and thus, nearing the extreme of excessive prodigality, there may become instilled in us the quality of generosity.³⁵Cf. Moreh, III, 39. If you should test most of the commandments from this point of view, you would find that they are all for the discipline and guidance of the faculties of the soul. Thus, the Law forbids revenge, the bearing of a grudge, and blood-revenge by saying, "Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge";³⁶Lev. XIX, 18. "thou shalt surely unload with him"³⁷Ex. XXIII, 5. (the ass of him who hates you); "thou shalt surely help him to lift them up again"³⁸Deut. XXII, 4. (thy brother's ass or ox which has fallen by the way). These commandments are intended to weaken the force of wrath or anger. Likewise, the command, "Thou shalt surely bring them back"³⁹Ibid., XXII, 1. (thy brother's ox or lamb which has gone astray), is meant to remove the disposition of avarice. Similarly, "Before the hoary head shalt thou rise up, and honor the face of the old man",⁴⁰Lev. XIX, 32. "Honor thy father and thy mother"⁴¹Ex. XX, 12. etc., "thou shalt not depart from the sentence which they may tell thee"⁴²Deut. XVII, 11. etc., are intended to do away with boldness, and to produce modesty. Then, in order to keep away from the other extreme, i. e. of excessive bashulness, we are told, "Thou shalt indeed rebuke thy neighbor" etc.,⁴³Lev. XIX, 17. "thou shalt not fear him"⁴⁴Deut. XVIII, 22. (the false prophet) etc., so that excessive bashfulness, too, should disappear, in order that we pursue the medium course. Should, however, anyone who would without doubt be foolish if he did so try to enforce these commands with additional rigor, as, for instance, by prohibiting eating and drinking more than does the Law, or by restricting connubial intercourse to a greater degree, or by distributing all of his money among the poor, or using it for sacred purposes more freely than the Law requires, or by spending it entirely upon sacred objects and upon the sanctuary, he would indeed be performing improper acts, and would be unconsciously going to either one or the other extreme, thus forsaking completely the proper mean. In this connection, I have nerver heard a more remarkable saying than that of the Rabbis, found in the Palestinian Talmud, in the ninth chapter of the treatise Nedarim, where they greatly blame those who bind themselves by oaths and vows, in consequence of which they are fettered like prisoners. The exact words they use are, "Said Rabbi Iddai, in the name of Rabbi Isaac, 'Dost thou not think that what the Law prohibits is sufficient for thee that thou must take upon thyself additional prohibitions?'"⁴⁵Yer. Nedarim, IX, 1; ed. Krotoschin, 41b: אלא שאתה מבקש לאסור עליך.

(1) There are some people--and they are people of deep hearts--who walks in the ways of the philosophers, investigating all things with their minds and intellects. It is very astonishing in their eyes, regarding the commandments pertaining to deeds, that a person should merit eternal success in the separate world by means of any commandment that is physical. They say, what help can a physical deed give the the soul as a means to acquire eternal life in the separate world, in a place where there are no physical deeds? And more than this, they are astonished; for if all the commandments were good qualities in the human soul, such as the commandments of charity (Deuteronomy 15:8), and the commandment "you shall not hate your brother in your heart" (Leviticus 19:17) and "you shall not stand idly by your neighbor's blood" (ibid. 19:16), and similar instances of good character traits, which are good qualities in the soul of the doer, it would be possible to say that after all a person may acquire good qualities by means of them and distance himself from evil. And it is said the the LORD--may He be blest--gives a good reward to whomever good is found in, and pays back evil to the evildoer. But the commandments of not wearing wool with linen (Leviticus 19:19) and forbidden combinations of seeds (ibid.) and the commandment of slaughter from the neck and not from the nape, and pinching the head off from the nape and not the neck in the temple (Chullin 19b)--if it is bad deed to do it from the nape, why is slaughter from the neck forbidden in the temple (ibid.)? And if doing it from the neck is good, if so why is its opposite found in the temple? Lo, they have found many ways to give a reason and explanation with their intellect, which is far from the ways of the Torah and from the ways of the sages. Only to those who know the Torah have the hidden things of wisdom and truth been revealed.