The Torah portions which we are currently reading contain Moshe’s parting words of wisdom to his beloved nation. Prominent within these speeches are several broad biblical injunctions such as loving and fearing God, doing what is good and upright, and walking in His Ways. These injunctions are understood by our sages as seeking to guide people’s behaviour, perspective and lifestyle rather than as pertaining to the performance or avoidance of specific actions.
The individualised nature of character training is evident in Rambam’s discussion of correct ethical conduct. He makes this point strongly in the opening chapter of Hilchot De’ot:
Each and every man possesses many character traits…… Some these traits a man is born with and are natural to him. others are consistent with his nature and will [therefore] be easier to acquire. Some traits he does not have from birth. He may have learned them from others, or gained them on his own. This may have come as a result of his own thoughts, or because he heard that this was a proper trait for him to attain…The early sages therefore instructed a man to evaluate his traits, to calculate them and to direct them along the middle path, so that he will achieve perfection.
The process set out by Rambam on the basis of aggadic sources requires each person to assess his or her own traits, in order to then determine how they can best be trained towards the optimum level. As the parallel discussion in his Shemonah Perakim shows, Rambam understood that this process was highly individualised. Depending on one’s original set of traits, and on the life circumstances in which one finds oneself, two different people might be advised to take quite contrasting courses of action.
Rambam proceeds to examine how to balance various combinations of character traits. Basing his position firmly on a collection of aggadic pronouncements, he identifies which contrasting traits one should seek to balance by taking the “middle path” (for example one should be neither excessively jestful nor overly depressed). He also identifies those sets of traits regarding which a person is “forbidden to follow the middle path”, – such as the need to distance oneself from pride and anger. Further pairs of traits, such as silence and being over-talkative, require a more subtle approach to determine how a people should conduct themselves. What stands out, however, is that people must tailor an individualised method for maximising the set of character traits that they possess within the circumstances in which they find themselves. Sometimes, as in the case of a nazir, it is advisable for one to lean temporarily away from one’s natural tendencies in order to achieve the correct character balance.
The need for flexibility when applying ethical and lifestyle rulings arises not only from the various combinations of traits that give each individual his or her quality of uniqueness. Sometimes the nuances and dynamics of a particular situation can impact on what is likely to be the correct course of action.
For example, on the one hand students of ethical teachings must know when to “distance oneself from a bad neighbour and not join up with the wicked”. On the other hand, they must also learn to “love people and bring them to the Torah”. What’s more, the very process of identifying a person as being wicked or a bad neighbour must be reconciled with the need to “judge every person favourably”.
In another example, a Mishnah in the name of Rabbi Akiva strongly condemns frivolity and light-headedness as leading to immorality. In the Talmud, however, no less a personage than Eliyahu HaNavi reveals that two specific men had earned their share in the World to Come. Their merit? They were jesters who sought to cheer up those who were depressed.
We can see from these examples that the primary role of ethical aggadot is to remind us of both the importance of character training and the objectives that such training should seek to achieve. Ethical aggadot also provide innumerable examples of how the sages implemented them to the circumstances which prevailed in their own lives. While these examples seek to motivate, their status is markedly different to conclusions of legal passages of the Talmud which are strictly binding on all people regardless of the situation.
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