Rabbeinu Bachya (Avos 3:17) If there is no derech eretz, there is no Torah, that is, if a person does not have ethics and morality, his Torah is not complete, and this morality comes to evoke that if a person has Torah, which is the main thing, he will nevertheless not neglect morality, and it will not be enough for him to have only Torah and not have morals, according to that the moral is the completeness of his Torah, that if he had a Torah and would often gluttonously eat meat and drink wine... then his Torah is despicable and despicable in the eyes of mankind, and there is no need to say that it has no completeness
So I was thinking about this today. You know the story of the Chazal who was asked about feeing his kids and he told them to go eat swampgrass?
ReplyDeleteNow, he could sit back and say "Look, I'm learning Torah and therefore am exempt from providing for my children." Anyone with a half-developed sense of decency says "I have kids, it's my responsibility to look after them."
So when common sense - not liberal values and the like but basic common sense - clashes with a fanatical Torah position, which goes first ?