Q&A: There Is No Such Thing as a Good Person
There Is No Such Thing as a Good Person
Question
Lately, when I started examining my moral motivations and my desire to be a nice person and good to those around me, I realized that the main reason I do this is because I’ll feel good about myself. Assuming I’m built like the rest of humanity, the unavoidable conclusion is that even the best people act from personal motives. If so, a difficult question arises: can there be a good person who does things for their own sake? This question also comes up in the context of Torah study and performing commandments for their own sake, since at the end of the day people keep commandments in order to feel good, and if Torah study or commandment observance were something that made us depressed, no one would do it.
Answer
You’re making a logical leap. The fact that you feel good when you do a good deed does not mean that you do it because of that feeling—that is, that you wouldn’t do it without that feeling. In the introduction to Aglei Tal, he says there is no problem with enjoying Torah study, but there is a problem when the study is done for the sake of the enjoyment. Many people would do a good deed even without getting a good feeling from it. See Column 120.