Q&A: Pleasure as Part of God’s Will
Pleasure as Part of God’s Will.
Question
As far as I understand the Rabbi’s view, our knowledge of the moral obligation commanded by God stems from the very existence of conscience and our intuitive understanding of “what is good” and “what is bad” (it is בהחלט possible that I’m misunderstanding, and I’d be happy to be corrected). It seems that there is within us some element, a kind of small compass, that directs us to the idea that “it is good to love life.” Would you say there is a way to infer that this is God’s explicit will?
Answer
We also have a tendency to speak slander. Not everything found within us creates a normative obligation. These are different kinds of feelings. We have inclinations within us, and we also have an understanding of norms of what is proper and improper. The latter are binding, and the former are not. I do not think anyone imagines that there is moral value in loving life. But if someone does in fact think so, then let him act accordingly.
Discussion on Answer
I don’t understand this hair-splitting.
I’m simply claiming that morality is for the sake of pleasure.
We are normatively obligated to be moral, and after moral aspirations are fulfilled (and also in parallel), our highest goal is to enjoy life and love it (and this replaces the need for an obligation to keep commandments).
I know the argument of “what if a person enjoys murdering,” but I’m not an atheist, and that’s exactly the point. God commanded us collectively to be moral so that we can reach more complete and truer levels of enjoyment of life.