Hot answers tagged tzaddikim
11
The statement of Maimonides to which you refer is from his Yad Hachazaka, Repentence [or: Return] chapter 3. There he writes (in my own loose translation):
Everyone has merits and sins. Someone whose merits are more than his sins is a tzadik. Someone whose sins are more than his merits is a rasha. Half and half, he's a benoni [=middle person].
So, ...
10
If only good things happened to good people and bad things to bad people then there would be a big limitation on free will.
Also, people aren't pure or evil. A vast majority of people have some good traits and actions and some that are not as good, so it is impossible to say one person is good and another bad.
Lastly, ultimate reward and punishment are not ...
9
The Alter Rebbe of Lubavitch, Rabbi Shneur Zalman, explains in the beginning of Tanya that if you take the Rambam's words (which are also Rashi and Tosfos' words) at face value, they create several contradictions.
First, they contradict Rabba, who called himself a beinoni despite the fact that he never stopped learning, to the extent that the Angel of ...
7
I suspect that it's a result of standards changing over time and the R' Luria's popular title being nailed down before they changed.
I seem to recall various sources referring to, e.g., the Rambam as "Rambamzal" or "Ram Bemazal." Perhaps back in the days of the Rambam's immediate successors, "Zal" was simply the popular suffix for deceased luminaries, and ...
5
The Tanya talks about this concept I do not remember them being ascribed a level. It is more that the world exists on their tzidkus or righteousness, The Source is A Gemara see the Wiki:
As a mystical concept, the number 36 is even more intriguing. It is said that at all times there are 36 special people in the world, and that were it not for them, all of ...
5
See Niddah 17a and Tosafos there ד"ה שורפן, which contrasts the tzaddik and the chassid as far as how they dispose of their fingernail cuttings (which can harm others). The tzaddik does what is necessary (in this case, burying the cuttings), while the chassid goes beyond that - burning them - to make absolutely certain that no such harm will occur, even ...
5
The source of the Rambam's ruling is Taanis 14b:
אמר ר' אלעזר אין אדם חשוב רשאי ליפול על פניו אלא אם כן נענה כיהושע בן נון שנאמר
(יהושע ז, י) ויאמר ה' אל יהושע קום לך למה זה אתה נופל על פניך
R. Elazar said: A important person should not fall upon his face unless he is confident that he will be answered like Yehoshua, as it is written, And the ...
5
According to this article in Hamodia he left abruptly because another rabbi said something disparaging about the Ba'al Shem Tov, and he felt he couldn't live in the same city as that rabbi.
The Baba Sali settled at first in Yavneh, but after a certain Rav there made a disrespectful statement about the Baal Shem Tov, he packed his bags the very same day ...
5
To begin with, Saul only ordered the execution of Achimelekh's Beit Av( Samuel I 22:16):
ויאמר המלך, מות תמות אחימלך: אתה, וכל-בית אביך
And the king said: 'Thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech, thou, and all thy father's house.'
The massacre at Nov was Doeg's own initiative( ibid. 22:18-19):
ויאמר המלך, לדויג (לדואג), סב אתה, ופגע בכהנים; ויסב דויג ...
4
SBA quotes the Yismach Mosheh that a "ba'al nefesh" is someone for whom the things related to the soul are more important than physical things. Rabbi Gil Student also quotes some statements by Rashi and Rabbeinu Chanan'el to define a ba'al nefesh. Rabbi Micha Berger quotes the Nefesh HaChayim as well; see there.
You can read the whole subject on Avodah ...
4
The "yeshu hanotzri" described by the uncensored Talmud is very much a no-goodnik. It is fair game to question which of those passages were intended literally, or referred to which character, or were intended as a way of disparaging people from moving to an emerging religion that was competing with rabbinic Judaism at the time. (The comments may have been ...
4
The Lubavitcher Rebbe (Toras Menachem vol. 31 page 184) explains this statement of the Zohar at length based on his father's commentary (Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Shnuerson - Likkutey Levi Yitzchok, Haaros Lesefer HaZohar Shmos-Devorim pg. 46). What comes out of the discussion is that there is one level of Tzadik attained simply by virtue of having a bris ("ועמך ...
4
The Rambam is referencing a Gemara (Megillah 22b) which says:
אמר רבי אלעזר, אין אדם חשוב רשאי ליפול על פניו אלא אם כן נענה כיהושע בן נון, דכתיב +יהושע ז:י+ ויאמר ה' אל יהושע קם לך [למה זה אתה נפל על פניך]
Rabbi Elazar said: An important person is not allowed to fall on his face unless he is [sure to be] answered like Yehoshua bin Nun, as it ...
3
Rashi on Rosh Hashana 17b says:
צדיק - במשפט אמת.
חסיד - נכנס לפנים מן השורה.
Tzaddik - with true justice. Chassid - goes beyond the basic boundary of the law.
So it seems that a Tzaddik keeps all the appropriate rules, but a Chassid goes beyond the letter of the law to do extra good.
Interestingly, in Kallah Rabbati (5:2 or in some ...
3
"Someone who really cares about their soul"; a "soul man", if you will. Often "the average Joe need not be stringent about this, but a soul man should be." If I'm not mistaken, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein occcasionally does rank stringencies, and I think he says "appropriate for anyone G-d fearing" is stronger than "appropriate for any soul man."
2
The Gemara (Berachot 34B, Sanhedrin 99A) states in the name of Rav Abahu that "in the place where Masters of Repentance ("Ba'alei Teshuva") stand, even complete and utter Tzaddikim do not stand":
במקום שבעלי תשובה עומדין צדיקים גמורים אינם עומדין
2
Here's an excerpt from the Shaar Bitachon which addresses this:
http://dafyomireview.com/article.php?docid=380
If one asks: Behold we see some tzadikim which must work very hard to earn a livelihood while many people who rebel against G-d live a good life in comfort?
The answer to this was already addressed by the prophets and the chasidim (extremely ...
2
Why do good things happen to bad people, so that they can be rewarded in this world for any good they might have done, leaving only punishment in the world to come. As Kind David says (Psalms 92:7-8):
ז אִישׁ-בַּעַר, לֹא יֵדָע; וּכְסִיל, לֹא-יָבִין אֶת-זֹאת.
7 A brutish man knoweth not, neither doth a fool understand this.
ח ...
2
I have heard in the name of the Chida - that women have three special Mitzvos - which is the Roshei Teivos of Chana - Ches = Chalah, Nun = Nidah, Hei = Hadlokas HaNer - and a woman who does these three is considered a Isha Ksheirah.
Notwithstanding the above there is a Medrash Breishis Rabsi Parshas Chaya Sara 23:1 which lists 22 Isha Ksheiras and one of ...
2
Sefer Shaar Yosef Volume 2 Page 132 says that the word Hadas w/ the Kolel = 70, which is Ayin - since the Hadasim allude to the eyes and each leaf of the myrtle is shaped like an eye. This is the reason Tzadikim are compared to a Hadas since they protect their eyes from seeing things that are prohibited.
1
The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that there are three different levels:
"Olam Haboh" as in where a person goes after passing away. To be worthy of this level one must fulfill certain conditions (Mi yaaleh bhar Hashem, Nki Kapaim ubar Levav).
"Mashiach's times" which all Jews will merit, but there will be differences in levels.
"the world of resurrection" ...
1
According to the statements of Rabbah in the name of Rabbi Yochanan (TB Bava Batra 75a) there are different categories of tzaddikim in the future.
For example:
אמר רבה א"ר יוחנן עתיד הקב"ה לעשות סוכה לצדיקים מעורו של לויתן שנא' התמלא בסוכות עורו זכה עושין לו סוכה לא זכה עושין לו צלצל שנאמר ובצלצל דגים ראשו זכה עושין לו צלצל לא זכה עושין לו ענק שנאמר וענקים ...
1
Maaneh Loshon is the text compiled by the "Mitteler Rebbe" of Lubavich to say by the grave of his father the "Alter Rebbe".
This text is edited for recital by the graves of the Lubavicher Rebbes in Queens.
It contains instructions, as to when to light the lamp, what to say when lighting, etc.
http://hebrewbooks.org/15693 is the text in Hebrew.
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