Answer

We learned from our teacher Immanuel Kant, of blessed memory, that an act is moral only if it is done for the sake of morality and on moral grounds. I have elaborated on this at length in several places. But clearly there is no need to extinguish one’s natural moral feeling, and if you do the act because of it, that is fine, so long as it is clear that even without that feeling you would act that way. In other words, you need to make sure that you have such a moral commitment that it would lead you to act this way even without the natural feeling. But there is absolutely no need to suppress the natural feeling. These are also the words of Maimonides in chapter six of Eight Chapters. See column 631.