Goodness, spirituality, and morality. Since you are reading this at The Wisdom Daily, you are probably positively pre-disposed to all three. We all know of course, that you can have too much of a good thing, so why not too much of a cherished positive value?
Maybe it’s that I am tired of the seemingly endless fights between those – and they are in the news every day, including pundits currently debating last weekend’s Santa Barbara mass killing – who reduce almost every issue to good vs. evil, moral vs. immoral, etc. and those who seem uncomfortable with using those terms at all. That, or I am simply feeling a bit like Goldilocks, and wondering how we can tell when we are crossing the line from “just right” to “too much”.
For starters, I don’t think the answers will be same for everybody, nor do I think that they will be exactly the same for goodness, spirituality and morality. In fact, even for a specific person, thinking about a single value, the answer may be different from situation to situation. That is actually one of the signs for which we can all be on the lookout – signs which suggest that we may have crossed over to too much of a good thing.
Fixed and absolute understandings of even the best values are almost always a sign that we are going too far with a good thing. I am all for well-defined and commitment-compelling understandings of goodness, spirituality and morality, but we can be sure that when we come to think of ours as the only possible definitions of those terms, we are being too much of them.
We are also at least flirting with being too good, too spiritual or too moral when we cut ourselves off from others in order to sustain our commitments to any of those three. At the very least, it pays to acknowledge that even when we need to cut others off to sustain ourselves, which can happen in all of our lives, we are certainly losing something precious to gain whatever it is we seek.
Finally, I think it pays to watch the extent to which we fail to enjoy the things we can in life – and I include here the physical things, the laughs, the “shallow” good times and great meals, the “silly” movies, and almost sinful indulgences which make life fun. Of course, that list will be different depending upon your cultural, philosophical or religious leanings, but if you find yourself always saying “no”, as your preferred path to goodness, spirituality and morality, you may well be “too good”, “too spiritual” or “too moral”.
Listed for many years in Newsweek as one of America’s “50 Most Influential Rabbis” and recognized as one of our nation’s leading “Preachers and Teachers,” by Beliefnet.com, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield serves as the President of Clal–The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, a training institute, think tank, and resource center nurturing religious and intellectual pluralism within the Jewish community, and the wider world, preparing people to meet the biggest challenges we face in our increasingly polarized world.
An ordained Orthodox rabbi who studied for his PhD and taught at The Jewish Theological Seminary, he has also taught the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs an ongoing seminar, and American Jewish University. Rabbi Brad regularly teaches and consults for the US Army and United States Department of Defense, religious organizations — Jewish and Christian — including United Seminary (Methodist), Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (Modern Orthodox) Luther Seminary (Lutheran), and The Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative) — civic organizations including No Labels, Odyssey Impact, and The Aspen Institute, numerous Jewish Federations, and a variety of communal and family foundations.
Hirschfield is the author and editor of numerous books, including You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism, writes a column for Religion News Service, and appears regularly on TV and radio in outlets ranging from The Washington Post to Fox News Channel. He is also the founder of the Stand and See Fellowship, which brings hundreds of Christian religious leaders to Israel, preparing them to address the increasing polarization around Middle East issues — and really all currently polarizing issues at home and abroad — with six words, “It’s more complicated than we know.”