Is There a Commandment to Refine One’s Character Traits?

Opening Post by the Rabbi

Is There a Commandment to Refine One’s Character Traits?

Posted on 30/1/2008

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Is there a commandment to refine one’s character traits?

Rabbi Hayyim Vital’s well-known question (Rabbi Hayyim Vital, a disciple of the Ari) is why the Torah does not command the refinement of character traits. The various answers that have been given to this are also well known.

What I have never understood is what room there is for this question, since in fact there is such a commandment.

And this is Rambam’s wording:

Rambam, Sefer HaMitzvot, Positive Commandment 8

The eighth commandment is that He commanded us to resemble Him, exalted be He, according to our capacity. That is His statement: “And you shall walk in His ways” (Deut. 28:9). This command is repeated, as He says: “to walk in all His ways” (Deut. 10:12; 11:22). And the explanation of this is: Just as the Holy One, blessed be He, is called merciful, so you too should be merciful; just as the Holy One, blessed be He, is called gracious, so you too should be gracious; just as the Holy One, blessed be He, is called righteous, so you too should be righteous; just as the Holy One, blessed be He, is called kind, so you too should be kind. This is the language of the Sifrei (at the end of Ekev). This command is repeated again in another formulation: “After the Lord your God shall you walk” (Deut. 13:5). It is also explained (Sotah 14a) that its meaning is to resemble Him in the good actions and distinguished character traits by which God, exalted be He, is described metaphorically—He is exalted far above all exaltation.

How is it that Rabbi Hayyim Vital and all the later authorities who engage analytically with his words ignore this positive commandment, which is accepted by the major authorities who enumerate the commandments?

It occurred to me that, in Rambam’s formulation, the commandment is to walk in the ways of the Holy One, blessed be He—that is, to perform good deeds—but not necessarily to refine one’s character traits. This of course assumes that the “commandment” of refining one’s character traits is not exhausted by proper behavior, but rather involves the rectification of the soul.

In any event, this does not seem to emerge from the language of Rambam and the halakhic authorities, for to be gracious and merciful, in the simple sense, is to possess such traits, and from that to perform corresponding acts as well. Moreover, even if this were correct, they should at least have noted it before beginning the dialectical analysis of this question. From the plain sense of the matter, it appears that they were not troubled by this at all, and I stand astonished, wondering why.

I would be glad to hear responses. And I ask this entire holy community here, before entering into the substantive discussion of this commandment itself (about which there is much to discuss), to direct your attention—and your keyboards—to the question I asked regarding the later authorities’ disregard of this commandment.

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Source (the forum “Stop Here, We Think”): http://www.bhol.co.il/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=2353515&forum_id=1364