In recent years, numerous articles and lectures have been given regarding the future of Sephardi Judaism. As a Sephardi rabbi, I was delighted. However, to my dismay, I found that most of the lectures were to the extreme right or the extreme left. In my opinion, Sephardi Judaism has to come back to its origin, which was always the middle path. Our great sage Maimonides teaches us in his book Mishneh Torah: “Each and every man possesses many character traits. Each trait is very different and distant from the others. One type of man is wrathful; he is constantly angry. [In contrast,] there is the calm individual who is never moved to anger, or, if at all, he will be slightly angry, [perhaps once] during a period of several years. There is the prideful man and the one who is exceptionally humble. There is the man ruled by his appetites—he will never be satisfied from pursuing his desires; and [conversely], the very pure of heart, who does not desire even the little that the body needs. There is the greedy man, who cannot be satisfied with all the money in the world, as [Ecclesiastes 5:9] states: ‘A lover of money never has his fill of money.’ [In contrast,] there is the man who puts a check on himself; he is satisfied with even a little, which is not enough for his needs, and he does not bother to pursue and attain what he lacks. There is [the miser], who torments himself with hunger, gathering [his possessions] close to himself. Whenever he spends a penny of his own, he does so with great pain. [Conversely,] there is [the spendthrift,] who consciously wastes his entire fortune.
“All other traits follow the same pattern [of contrast]. For example: the overly elated and the depressed; the stingy and the freehanded; the cruel and the soft-hearted; the coward and the rash, and the like. The two extremes of each quality are not the proper and worthy path for one to follow or train himself in. And if a person finds his nature inclining towards one of them or if he has already accustomed himself in one of them, he must bring himself back to the good and upright path. The upright path is the middle path of all the qualities known to man. This is the path which is equally distant from the two extremes, not being too close to either side. Therefore, the Sages instructed that a person measure (lit., estimate) his character traits, directing them in the middle path so he will be whole.”
How I wish that the great minds of Sephardi Jewry would sit united and craft the future of Sephardi Jewry through Maimonides’s model. This idea is appealing to me and it would be a dream come true. I wish that this would happen soon, but for now, let us all implement the lesson of Maimonides and implement the middle path in all our endeavors.
By Rabbi Ilan Acoca
