Pirkei Avos, Perek 2, Mishnah 1 "Rebbe said what is the straight path that a person should choose for himself? That it which is a glory to the one doing it and a glory to him from man."
Rav Yaakov Yitzchok of Lublin pointed out that the wording "What is the straight path that a person should choose," would seem to indicate that there is more than one straight path. The question is which one to choose. How are we meant to understand this?
Also, that which is "a glory to him from man" sound like he wants to serve God so that people praise him. How can that be right?
He explains that there are many different approaches to serving God. One person may study Kabbalah, another one the Talmud. One might pore over Halachic works while another engages in acts of kindness towards others. One leaves a hermetic life, while another develops relationships with others. Imagine if you have two tzaddikim one who serves God by refraining from the pleasures of this world, and the other by engaging in them. And if you would come to the one who refrains and asks him why he refrains and the other does not, and he would answer, "it is impossible to serve God while one enjoys this world." And then you would go to the other and he would say, "One cannot possibly be serving God when one is weakened with hunger. Such a person cannot be happy and must be miserable." People who would offer such responses are not tzaddikim.
True tzaddikim would praise the approach of another, while saying about themselves that they lack the ability to achieve what he can. "He is able to accomplish great things by taking every thing in this world and utilizing it to serve God. If I were to try to do that I would get so drawn after physical pleasure that I would forget God." That is the attitude of a true tzaddik when seeing the different approach to serving Hashem of another person.
This then is perhaps how we can understand the Mishnah. There are many straight paths. How does a person know which one is his straight path? It is the one with which he feels comfortable. But at the same time he needs to see glory in other men, even if they choose other paths.
Rav Yaakov Yitzchok of Lublin pointed out that the wording "What is the straight path that a person should choose," would seem to indicate that there is more than one straight path. The question is which one to choose. How are we meant to understand this?
Also, that which is "a glory to him from man" sound like he wants to serve God so that people praise him. How can that be right?
He explains that there are many different approaches to serving God. One person may study Kabbalah, another one the Talmud. One might pore over Halachic works while another engages in acts of kindness towards others. One leaves a hermetic life, while another develops relationships with others. Imagine if you have two tzaddikim one who serves God by refraining from the pleasures of this world, and the other by engaging in them. And if you would come to the one who refrains and asks him why he refrains and the other does not, and he would answer, "it is impossible to serve God while one enjoys this world." And then you would go to the other and he would say, "One cannot possibly be serving God when one is weakened with hunger. Such a person cannot be happy and must be miserable." People who would offer such responses are not tzaddikim.
This then is perhaps how we can understand the Mishnah. There are many straight paths. How does a person know which one is his straight path? It is the one with which he feels comfortable. But at the same time he needs to see glory in other men, even if they choose other paths.
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