Q&A: Observing Commandments Through Restraining the Inclination or Naturally
Observing Commandments Through Restraining the Inclination or Naturally
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Have you ever written anything on the issue of observing commandments through struggle and forcing oneself against the inclination, as opposed to observing them naturally and out of an inner desire? Or do you know of sources on the matter?
Maybe I’ll bring a source as an example to make sure I wrote this clearly—there is a Gur Aryeh on the commandments in which it says “if” even though they are obligatory (as Rashi notes; for example, on “If you lend money to My people”) that explains that the reason the Torah used “if” here, as though it were not an obligation, is to teach that these commandments are preferable when done out of a natural moral feeling and not only as a decree of the King. (I’m not sure I stated his view precisely; this is from a distant memory. But I think the point is clear.)
Thank you very much
Answer
Search online for discussions of “the one who conquers” and “the one who is upright” in the thought of Rabbi Kook. Also see Maimonides’ Eight Chapters, chapter six, which is devoted entirely to this issue.
Well, and what is the Rabbi’s own view?
It seems to me that one could say (and this is also the view of the honored Rabbi) that there is an advantage to both. If you like, there is a moral virtue in someone who forces himself (in the spirit of Kant’s ethics), and there is an aesthetic or human virtue in someone for whom the matter is natural (here there should be a link to the post about aesthetic and human virtues).
Either way, it seems that a person’s goal is to aspire to the natural mode, but one needs to go through the stage of coercion first (here there should be a link to the story of the goat by Amnon Yitzhak). And I wrote this briefly.