As quoted in the previous post, the Rambam states unequivocally that halachah "ignores the injury that might be caused to a single person through a certain maxim or a certain divine precept". In other words, even though the entire point of halachah is to improve us, it's quite possible (or even probable) that at least for some people, some of the time, some halachot don't just not provide any improvement to the person's overall welfare (spiritual, emotional, physical, mental etc), but are even injurious to that person. So in such cases, what should that person do, according to the Rambam?
This is the obvious question here, but the Rambam completely ignores it. From a rational, Rambam perspective, since the whole point of halachah is to improve you, then if there is (genuinely) a halachah which is detrimental to you, yet you are mechuyav to be improved, it would seem that the Rambam's only rational approach would be to permit you to break the halachah in such a circumstance.
Now, you might counter argue that permitting the breaking of halachah is a very slippery slope which will inevitably result in everyone making all sorts of excuses why certain halachot are injurious to them. So clearly, such a policy could not ever be "official".
But it would seem that according to the Rambam, if you were to do an aveiroh, let's say in private, and it was genuinely the case that keeping the halachah in such a case was not in any way beneficial to you, then according to the Rambam you would be justified (or probably even mechuyav) to do whatever is most beneficial to you.
I can't see that the Rambam could take any other approach, since according to the Rambam your task in life is to be perfected as much as possible, and the halachah is simply a rational means to that end. When the halachah works then good, and when it doesn't then the only rational thing to do would be to ignore it.
Now, I'm not going to get into details about what kinds of halachot could be injurious to which kinds of people - according to the Rambam it would seem that each person has the right to make his own cheshbon. Of course if you are biased and make the cheshbon incorrectly then your actions may end up being injurious to you, and you will suffer any natural and rational consequences arising therefrom. But if you are correct in your assessments, then all will be well with you.
Monday, December 28, 2009
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