Does denying yourself pleasure make you more holy?
By Rabbi Shalom Landau.
Rabbi Landau answers that holiness is not a list of things you choose to deny yourself; it is the Torah’s list. “Holy is when you enjoy what Hashem lets you enjoy. Unholy is when you enjoy what he does not allow you.”
Some people think suffering makes them spiritual: deny yourself, starve yourself. Rabbi Landau says the Torah doesn’t teach that. “You don’t make your own list to become holy.” If you choose that path anyway, he says, “don’t expect him to reward you because you’re not necessarily pleasing him.”
In fact, refusing what Hashem gave can be the opposite of piety. “If Hashem gave you blessing and you refuse to enjoy it, you’re being ungrateful.” The line the Torah draws is between permitted and forbidden, not between pleasure and pain.
Related concepts: Spirituality · Discipline
In A Soul at Peace: Rejoice in All the Good
Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level
Surface claim
Self-made restrictions do not make a person holy; holiness is following the Torah's list of what is permitted and forbidden.
What may be behind it
In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that a person who invents extra self-denial the Torah never asked for, assuming he is earning spiritual points, is making a basic mistake.
Deepest human truth
Refusing a blessing Hashem gave is not humility but ingratitude. The Torah asks us to enjoy the gift and remember the Giver.
More questions from this teaching
More answers: Faith, Providence, and the Jewish Destiny · All questions · Questions about Rabbi Landau and Rivnitz